Inter-American

division

ADULT SABBATH SCHOOL BIBLE STUDY GUIDE

THE WONDER OF JESUS

SEVENTH-DAY

ADVENTIST CHURCH

ADULT

SABBATH SCHOOL

BIBLE STUDY GUIDE

April

■

May

■

June 2008

April

■

May

■

June 2008

COLOMBIA

VENEZUELA

FRENCH

GUIANA

SURINAME

GUYANA

MEXICO

PANAMA

EL SALVADOR

GUATEMALA

BELIZE

HONDURAS

NICARAGUA

COSTA RICA

Lesser Antilles

Caribbean Sea

Atlantic

Ocean

Pacific

Ocean

Bogota

Cayenne

Georgetown

Paramaribo

Caracas

Belmopan

San Jose

Te gucigalpa

Mexico City

Panama City

San Salvador

Guatemala City

Managua

Nassau

BARBADOS

CAYMAN

ISLANDS

CUBA

GUADELOUPE

DOM. REP.

GRENADA

JAMAICA

ANTIGUA

and BARBUDA

PUERTO

RICO

MARTINIQUE

TRINIDAD

and

TOBAGO

HAITI

VIRGIN

ISLANDS

BAHAMAS

*EAQ080401*

Where legally possible, offerings will go to these projects; otherwise special arrangement will be made with the

General Conference for distribution of funds based on the laws of the countries where these offerings are collected.

Unions Churches Members Population

Division 1 106 —4444

Caribbean 560 200,354 3,575,000

Colombian 1,032 241,029 46,772,000

Cuban 272 26,550 11,269,000

Dominican 609 231,736 9,017,000

French Antilles-Guiana 125 28,623 1,058,000

Haitian 413 303,944 8,522,000

Inter-Oceanic Mexican 918 161,315 33,172,000

Mid-Central American 910 322,646 14,361,000

North Central American 706 216,140 13,320,000

North Mexican 560 158,726 5,483,000

Puerto Rican 289 35,530 3,929,000

South Central American 566 215,534 13,156,000

South Mexican 881 255,206 10,000,000

enezuela-Antilles 707 166,996 27,284,000

West Indies 669 242,741 3,036,000

Totals 9,218 2,807,176 263,625,000

●

* Map not dr

wn to scale

*Totals December 2006

Mission Projects

Our Thirteenth Sabbath Offering this quarter will help congrega-

tions throughout the Inter-American Division provide the following:

● Dormitory worship halls at the University of the Southern

Caribbean in Trinidad

● Churches for existing congregations and lay training centers in

the Inter-Oceanic Union of Mexico.

For more information, visit www.AdventistMission.org

Wonder

The

esus

Wonder

The

esus

Contents

1 Who Was Jesus?—March 29–April 4—————————————6

2 The Mystery of His Deity—April 5–11————————————14

3 The Reality of His Humanity—April 12–18 —————————22

4 The Wisdom of His Teachings—April 19–25—————————30

5 The Wonder of His Works—April 26–May 2 —————————38

6 The Challenge of His Sayings—May 3–9 ———————————46

7 The Puzzle of His Conduct—May 10–16 ———————————56

8 The Intensity of His Walk—May 17–23 ———————————64

9 The Tenderness of His Love—May 24–30 ——————————72

10 The Meaning of His Death—May 31–June 6 —————————80

11 The Power of His Resurrection—June 7–13 —————————88

12 The Efficacy of His Priestly Ministry—June 14–20 ——————96

13 His Return as King and Friend—June 21–27————————104

Editorial Assistants

Tresa Beard

Larie S. Gray

Jean Kellner

Pacific Press

Coordinator

Paul A. Hey

Art Director and Illustrator

Lars Justinen

Concept Design

Dever Design

Editorial Office 12501 Old Columbia Pike, Silver Spring, MD 20904

Come visit us at our Web site: http://www.absg.adventist.org

Principal Contributor

Roy Adams

Editor

Clifford R. Goldstein

Associate Editor

Soraya Homayouni Parish

Publication Manager

Lea Alexander Greve

The Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide is prepared by the Office of the Adult Bible

Study Guide of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. The preparation of the

guides is under the general direction of a worldwide Sabbath School Manuscript Evaluation

Committee, whose members serve as consulting editors. The published guide reflects the

input of the committee and thus does not solely or necessarily represent the intent of the

author(s).

Of all the people immortalized over millennia upon the pages of his-

tory, Jesus of Nazareth had the shortest period of public labor. Only

three and a half years.

But what a three and a half years they were!

Socrates taught for 40, Plato for 50, Aristotle for 40, Jesus for not

even 4. Yet the impact of Christ’s short ministry infinitely exceeds that

of the combined 130 years of those three Greek giants.

Someone once wrote that “the grandest paintings of Raphael,

Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci are but a reflection of Jesus, the

Light of the world. Haydn, Handel, Bach, and Mendelssohn gave to

the world their best melodies in the symphonies and oratorios they

wrote to glorify Jesus Christ. Art, culture,

music, philosophy—all have been enriched by

His teachings. But Christ offers far more than

philosophy, art, and music. These cannot save.

Jesus offers light and life and salvation to sin-

ful men.”

That statement, however eloquent, falls

short of doing justice to the richness of Jesus,

for that quote is in the context of the West

only; Christ’s appeal, in contrast, is universal,

transcending all political, ethnic, and cultural borders.

“You should search the Bible,” Ellen G. White writes, “for it tells

you of Jesus. As you read the Bible, you will see the matchless charms

of Jesus. You will fall in love with the Man of Calvary, and at every step

you can say to the world, ‘His ways are ways of pleasantness, and all

His paths are peace.’ You are to represent Christ to the world. You may

show to the world that you have a hope big with immortality”—

Life

Sketches,

p. 293.

With Jesus at its center, Christianity is also a historical religion,

meaning that it revolves around a person whose life and work are

amenable to historical study and analysis. Yet, at the same time, we

A Hope Big With I

Christ’s appeal . . .

is universal,

transcending all

political, ethnic,

and cultural

borders.

cannot circumscribe Jesus Christ within the confines of history. For

the reality of His person is suprahistorical (above history)—there’s a

point beyond which historical analysis cannot probe. History cannot

take us into the mysteries of salvation, or into the wonders of what

Christ’s death offers the world. For all that history offers, it cannot

begin to fathom what Ellen G. White called “a hope big with immor-

tality.”

This quarter centers on Jesus, on who He was, on what He taught,

on what He did—and on what He

is doing now. That last clause, “on

what He is doing now,” makes all the difference in the world. It is

what might be called “the mystery of the present tense,” a crucial ele-

ment that distinguishes Jesus from every other historical figure, for

what other historical figure, no matter how great, is doing anything

for us now?

Who was this amazing Jesus? What was He like? What did He do

while here? What is He, indeed, doing for us now? And finally, why

should He be a concern for people in the twenty-first century?

The answers, as we will see, are far from academic. On the contrary,

they affect the destiny of every human being.

Roy Adams, a native of the Caribbean, the author of this quarter’s Bible

study guide, is an associate editor of the

Adventist Review, the interna-

tional magazine of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He is married to

Celia (nee Wilson), and they have two adult children, Dwayne and

Kimberly.

Immortality

Sabbath School University’s weekly

discussions of the Adult Sabbath School

lesson will enrich your Sabbath School

experience.

Just 28 minutes of your time! Enjoy

fellowship, outreach, Bible study and

mission.

Sabbath School leaders — you don’t

want to miss this weekly broadcast on

Hope Channel.

To watch Sabbath School

University on Hope Channel and

more Adventist programming, call

1.888.393.HOPE (4673) or visit

www.hopetv.org

Watch it

on the

The A

dventist Church in Central America is large—3 million—and

still growing, thanks in large part to faithful lay workers. Pastors often

shepherd dozens of churches, making it necessary to leave the week-

to-week church work to the members. Properly trained lay workers have

taken over much of the evangelism efforts throughout the region.

The program works so well that many areas, such as Mexico, are suffering

growing pains. Many congregations meet in homes and rented halls because

they don’t have a church.

They are part of a winning team, and I want to help these believers have

the training and tools they need to continue their good work. I’m glad

that part of our Thirteenth Sabbath Offering will help equip even more

lay workers to become successful lay

leaders in their churches and small

groups. For me, it’s personal.

L ESSON

*March 29–April 4

Who Was Jesus?

SABBATH AFTERNOON

Read for This Week’s Study:

Matt. 16:13–16, John 20:

26–28, 1 Cor. 1:18–27, 15:3–7.

Memory Text:

“When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea

Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of

Man is?’ ” (Matthew 16:13, NIV).

rom the earliest days of His ministry, there was discussion and

debate about Jesus. How interesting that those discussions con-

tinue, even today. They began with the people of His own times

and from His own town. “ ‘Where did this man get this wisdom and

these miraculous powers?’ they asked. ‘Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?

Isn’t his mother’s name Mary . . . ?’ ” (Matt. 13:54, 55, NIV).

It is what might be called the scandal of the particular: The

Messiah had to come from somewhere, all right, but not from a place

so familiar to us, and certainly not from a family that is just like the

rest of ours! In one form or another, the same fundamental concerns

expressed by these local townspeople concerning His identity have

framed the debate about Jesus across the centuries, heightening the

mystique around Him.

Who, indeed, was Jesus? Why was He confused with other promi-

nent Jewish characters? What were the challenges to Jesus’ integrity

and identity in the centuries following the New Testament era? How

convinced were the Bible writers of His identity, and why? These are

some of the questions that our first week’s lesson will examine.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, April 5.

SUNDAY

March 30

Not the Baptist (Matt. 16:14)

The question raised by Jesus’ own townsfolk (Matt. 13:54, 55) came

up repeatedly during His public ministry, and in a variety of ways, as

people in the different areas of Palestine encountered Him. Thus, as

He went through the region of Caesarea Philippi with His disciples,

some six months or so before the final showdown of His life, He felt

the need to draw them out on the critical question of the day: “Who do

people say the Son of Man is?” (Matt. 16:13, NIV).

Read

the disciples’ response in Matthew 16:14. What does this say

about their familiarity with the theological questions of the day?

Why do you think Jesus wanted to bring up this issue at this spe-

cific time?

____________________________________________________________________

The report on what people were saying about Jesus probably pro-

vides insight into how different individuals and groups experienced

His ministry in their own setting. How was it possible for some to

think that Jesus could be John the Baptist when the two were contem-

poraries? And what aspects of Jesus’ ministry may have resembled

that of the Baptist?

For

possible answers, consider the following passages:

Matt. 3:1–3; 4:12, 13, 17; 14:1, 2; Mark 1:1–5.

____________________________________________________________________

Today, of course, we hardly can understand how it was possible to

confuse Jesus with John the Baptist. But given the absence of mass

communication in the first century and the abundance of secondhand

information and rumor, confusion came easily. After all, the ministries

of John and Jesus w

ere not without parallels, as the passages abo

show. But those who had actually encountered John should have been

left with no uncer

tainty

(Matt. 3:11, 12; Mar

k 1:6–8).

It is easy to look back at the mistakes of others and wonder how

they could have done what they did. What lessons can we learn

from watching these mistak

es that can help protect us from

making the same kinds of mistakes?

MONDAY

March 31

Not Elijah or Jeremiah or Some

Other Prophet

Read again Matthew 16:14. That people should mistake Jesus for

John is one thing. But for Elijah? Or Jeremiah? Or some other Old

Testament prophet? Where did such ideas come from?

Elijah was the fearless prophet of Mount Carmel fame, the fire-

brand who had the temerity to confront Israel’s recalcitrant king and

demonic wife. He was the one who held forth alone against the com-

bined religious establishment in Ahab’s corrupt regime (see 1 Kings

18).

Jeremiah (“the weeping prophet”), coming upon the scene at a time

of intense national ferment and crisis, conveyed a message to his com-

patriots that could not have been more unwelcome to the national

mood—and he paid for it, too (Jer. 20:1, 2, 7, 8).

As for the rest of God’s faithful prophets in the Old Testament, Jesus

in His scathing woes upon the scribes and Pharisees left Israel’s treat-

ment of these godly stalwarts for the last, as if to suggest that it was

the central point He wished to make: “ ‘So you testify against your-

selves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the

prophets’ ”

(Matt. 23:31, NIV).

What

significance do you see in the fact that Jesus’ contemporaries

identified Him with these particular personalities?

____________________________________________________________________

To have been mistaken for any of the characters included in Peter’s

response in Matthew 16:14 was clearly a high compliment. These were

spiritual giants whose sterling character held deep resonance in Jewish

society. But however flattering, such comparisons (as we have come to

know) fell utterly short of truth. If Jeremiah had said, for instance, that

he was the light of the world, history would have considered him

demented. And however spectacular the victory on Carmel, had Jesus

quailed in the face of threat, as did the ancient hero of Carmel, we now

would not be falling at His feet in reverence. The confusion of Jesus

with these ancient stalwarts, however gratifying and intriguing, falls

completely short of the reality portrayed in the Gospels.

What is the main difference between Jesus and all these other

prophets, and why is that difference so important to us? (See

John 1:1–5, 17:5, Heb. 1:1–3.)

TUESDAY

April 1

The Fascination Continues: Part 1

The New Testament does not speculate about Jesus. It simply pre-

sents Him as the divine Son of God. Nor does it answer the numerous

concerns about Jesus’ being and person that would occupy succeeding

generations. Yet, in all the discussions and arguments, there was a

rock-bottom acceptance of the centrality of Scripture and the basic

identity of Jesus Christ.

But the so-called Age of Enlightenment (of the seventeenth and

eighteenth centuries) would change all that. No longer would

Scripture constitute the foundation of discourse about Jesus. Instead,

new methods and criteria being applied to the study of other ancient

documents also would be applied to the Bible. With everything now

subject to rational analysis and criticism, supernaturalism, a founda-

tional presupposition of biblical faith, was rejected. The traditional

biblical view of a human race steeped in sin and needing divine res-

cue was replaced by humanism, an optimistic belief in human capac-

ity and progress.

The change of outlook was so radical and far-reaching that many

thought they were witnessing the end of Christianity. Religion was

considered obsolete, and reason, once the handmaid of theology,

became its acknowledged mistress. The result was that the focus now

shifted from the Jesus described in the Gospels, the Jesus of our sal-

vation, to the historical Jesus, supposedly the real Jesus as He actually

existed without the theological baggage superimposed by the Gospels

and later Christian piety. In other words, this Jesus, whoever He was,

surely was not the Savior of the world.

As you reflect on these developments, consider the following: (1)

The Gospel writers were very confident in the truth of what

they had written (see Luke 1:1–4). What does Luke say about

what he is writing? Why can we trust it? (2) One of those eye-

witnesses that Luke speaks about was Peter, who himself had to

confront doubters and skeptics (see 2 Pet. 1:16–21). Though

Peter is speaking here about issues wider than the single one

about Jesus’ identity, how might we use his approach to secure

ourselves against the Enlightenment onslaught we are dis-

cussing here? (3) Paul also needed to address the issue of Jesus

head-on. How did he argue the case?

(See 1 Cor. 1:18–27,

15:3–7.)

WEDNESDAY

April 2

The Fascination Continues: Part 2

The so-called historical Jesus movement was founded on the belief

that we still can find in the Gospels sufficient data to reconstruct the

portrait of Jesus as a historical figure, notwithstanding the theological

tampering by the early church (as alleged by Enlightenment thinking).

The new approach to studying Jesus was seen by its advocates as sci-

entific, and thus in keeping with the mood of the times.

The trend held sway until the twentieth century, when new studies

helped undermine this whole movement, showing how this historical

Jesus idea was utterly unscientific and subjective. Studies exposed the

entire rationalistic enterprise as a miserable failure.

The history of Jesus studies are long, winding, and complicated;

and they need not detain us further, except to mention the so-called

Jesus Seminar

, a contemporary group of radical scholars determined

to succeed where other historical quests before them failed. Their goal

is to “ ‘rescue Jesus from the spin doctors’ who wrote the Gospels.”

—Roy Hoover, in Kenneth L. Woodward, “The Death of Jesus,”

Newsweek, April 4, 1994, p. 39.

Few today take the Jesus Seminar people seriously. (After all, how

seriously can you take people who argued that instead of being resur-

rected, Jesus, after His death, was eaten by dogs?) Today, the prevail-

ing Christian position insists that Christianity stands on a firm, his-

torical foundation. Notwithstanding two millennia of criticism and

contro

versy, Jesus remains the undisputed Master of the centuries.

one of his most penetrating rejoinders to the intellectual sophisti-

cates of his day, Paul zeroed in on the essence of the Christian

proclamation: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those

who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of

God”

(1 Cor. 1:18, NIV). Why is the message of the Cross so impor-

tant for us today, as well?

Read also 1 Corinthians 1:18–27. What message is there for us

in those verses? What are some of the things we believe that just

cannot be explained by the “wisdom of the world”

(vs. 20, NIV)?

In what ways has “God made foolish the wisdom of the world”

(vs. 20, NIV)?

THURSDAY

April 3

Messiah, Son of God (John 17:3)

Who Jesus was is not simply a theological proposition to be proved

or disproved. No, we are dealing here with the faith of untold numbers

over the centuries. If Jesus is not what they have believed Him to be,

then they have all been clinging to falsehood and fables and are all

lost. If Jesus was simply a man who lived two thousand years ago in

Palestine, then the Christian church has been involved in the most rep-

rehensible hoax in the history of the world.

How

do the following texts get at the heart of the issue?

Matt. 1:22, 23

____________________________________________________________________

Matt. 11:2–6

____________________________________________________________________

Matt. 22:41–45

____________________________________________________________________

Mark 14:61–64

____________________________________________________________________

John 20:26–28

____________________________________________________________________

The reaction of the disciples as they witnessed the miracle of the

calming of the storm (Matt. 8:23–27) should be ours, as well: “ ‘What

kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!’ ” (vs.

27, NIV). The night of His arrest, the high priest put a direct question

to Jesus and charged Him to answer under oath: “ ‘Tell us if you are

the Christ, the Son of God.’ ‘Yes, it is as you say,’ Jesus replied” (Matt.

26:63, 64, NIV). And in Pilate’s judgment hall, the governor had his

own query: “ ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’” Jesus’response was the

same: “ ‘Yes, it is as you say’ ” (Matt. 27:11, NIV).

By any measure, these were two extraordinary responses. If Jesus,

only the son (as was believed) of a humble carpenter from Nazareth,

could have the boldness to answer yes to Pilate’s question about king-

ship, He obviously was thinking of realities that transcend this world.

And that is what we saw in His response in the high priest’s palace:

“ ‘In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of

the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven’ ”

(Matt. 26:64,

NIV).

Thus, the Gospels (and the rest of the New Testament) make it

clear: In Jesus we have in human flesh the Son of the Living

God, the One entitled to extend the exceptional invitation,

“ ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will

give you rest’ ” (Matt. 11:28, NIV).

FRIDAY

April 4

Further Study:

On the issue of Jesus’ identity, read Ellen G. White,

“Is Not This the Carpenter’s Son?” pp. 236–243, in The Desire of Ages.

“Who is this Jesus? they questioned. He who had claimed for

Himself the glory of the Messiah was the son of a carpenter, and had

worked at His trade with His father Joseph. They had seen Him toiling

up and down the hills, they were acquainted with His brothers and sis-

ters. . . . They had seen Him develop from childhood to youth, and from

youth to manhood. Although His life had been spotless, they would not

believe that He was the Promised One.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire

of Ages, p. 237. “They would not admit that He who had sprung from

poverty and lowliness was other than a common man.”—Page 239.

“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said

would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic . . .

or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice.

Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or

something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him

and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord

and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His

being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did

not intend to.”—C. S. Lewis, “The Shocking Alternative,” p. 56, in

Mere Christianity (New York: McMillan-Collier, 1960).

Discussion Questions:

● What makes it easier for us, we who live two thousand years

after Jesus, to accept Him as the Messiah, than it was for those

who lived at the same time as Jesus to accept Him? What makes

it more difficult?

● Skepticism about Jesus is likely to continue as long as time

shall last. What, for you, is the single most convincing evidence of

the validity of Jesus and His saving grace? How could you share

this evidence with others in a way that could help convince them

as well?

● We looked this week at how the scientific rationalism of the

Enlightenment had been used as a weapon against faith. What

are some other types of “isms,” or philosophies or ideologies,

prevalent in your own culture that work against faith, as well?

Most important,

w can y

ou meet these challeng

es?

● As a class, go back over 1 Corinthians 1:18–27. What message

is Paul giving that is important for all of us to remember?

tor

INSIDE

Miriam’s Stubborn Faith

Miriam (not her real name) is a teenager living in a polygamous family

in Ibajiland, Nigeria. Because of her family’s religion, she knew little about

Christianity until some Global Mission pioneers came to conduct concen-

trated outreach. The pioneers hired Miriam’s aunt to cook for them, and

Miriam went along to help.

Miriam overhead the pioneers tell stories of Jesus that stirred her heart.

She left the cooking pots and listened to the pioneers teach about Jesus. In

time she gave her heart to Christ and asked to be baptized.

Word of Miriam’s decision spread to her family, and fellow villagers tried

to prevent her from being baptized. But they failed.

Her baptism triggered hostility, and Miriam was forced to leave her

father’s home. She found refuge with an Adventist teacher in her village,

but militant religious leaders tried to kidnap her and force her to renounce

her new faith, even if that meant killing her.

The pastor managed to help Miriam escape to safety, but angry religious

leaders turned on the Adventist community, threatening to burn the church

down.

In order to prevent a religious crisis in the region, the local king called a

meeting of the two religious groups involved. The family’s religious lead-

ers insisted that the only peaceful solution was for the Adventists to pro-

duce Miriam. The king finally agreed and ordered the Adventists to return

Miriam to her family.

Reluctantly the pastor sent word for Miriam to return home. She was

taken to the king’s palace, where she exhibited great boldness for a young

girl. She told those present that she was not interested in returning to her

parents’ religion, but wanted to continue to follow Christ.

Some members of Miriam’s family, seeing her strong conviction, were

willing to allow her to follow Christianity, but the religious leaders

demanded that she return to her father’s faith and have no contact with

Adventists. The pastor told the council that if Miriam wished to worship

with the church members at any time, she would be welcome and the

church would never send her away.

Miriam returned home with her father, who tried to force her to worship

with them. But Miriam is determined to remain true to Christ and finds

ways to share her faith with others. She must remain under her father’s con-

trol until she finishes high school, b

ut then she will worship as she wishes.

Her brothers have seen Miriam’s faith, and though they cannot openly say

it, they too wish to leave their father’s religion and follow Jesus.

Pray for Miriam, and give your mission offerings so that those who are

searching for the truth may find it, no matter where they live.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.

Web site: www.adventistmission.org

L ESSON

*April 5–11

The Mystery of His Deity

SABBATH AFTERNOON

Read for This Week’

s Study:

Isa. 9:6; Mic. 5:2; Matt. 16:

13–17; John 1:1, 14, 18; 8:58; 17:5; 20:28; 1 Cor. 1:3; 2 Cor. 13:14.

Memory Text:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word

was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the

beginning. Through him all things were made; without him noth-

ing was made that has been made” (John 1:1–3, NIV).

eaving the historical overview, we come to the Scriptures them-

selves. We want to see what they tell us about Jesus, whose life

has commanded so much attention through the centuries. As we

do so, we ought to keep in mind the crucial exchange between Jesus

and His disciples at Caesarea Philippi. Upon hearing Peter’s confes-

sion of Him as the Messiah, the Son of God, Jesus reminded him that

this insight did not spring from human investigation but was disclosed

“ ‘by my Father in heaven’ ”

(Matt. 16:17, NIV). (See Matt. 16:13–17,

also Matt. 11:25–27.) “Flesh and blood” (Matt. 16:17, KJV), our own

unaided, human wisdom, is inadequate in the presence of the supreme

mystery of the ages.

To believe in Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God is to affirm,

indirectly, that He did not have His origin in Mary’s womb. It is to

affirm His essential differentness from the rest of humanity, however

much He may be like us in other ways. In short, it is to believe that He

existed before His time on earth; that, quite simply, He preexisted. He

was “the image of the invisible God,” by whom “all things were cre-

ated”

(Col. 1:15, 16, NIV). “He is before all things, and in him all

things hold together” (vs. 17, NIV).

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, April 12.

SUNDAY

April 6

His Preexistence—What It Means

to Us

Why

should we be concerned about Christ’s preexistence? What has it

to do with salvation? What hint(s) toward an answer do you find

in Hebrews 1:1–4 and Colossians 1:15–20?

____________________________________________________________________

For all of us, our existence began when we were born (or, as some

argue, it began when we were conceived). Christ was different. He did

not come into existence in Mary’s womb. He was before that, eternally

so. That is what we mean by His preexistence. He was there before all

time.

How

do the following texts give us hints about Christ’s preexistence?

Isa. 9:6

____________________________________________________________________

Mic. 5:2 (compare Matt. 2:1–6)

____________________________________________________________________

The word mosa’ah (KJV: “goings forth”; RSV: “origin”) in Micah

5:2 is not easy to translate. But the other part of the verse clearly refers

not only to the preexistence of the coming Ruler but also to His eter-

nal preexistence “from everlasting.” (See

The SDA Bible Commentary,

vol. 4, p. 1025.)

Isaiah 9:6 teaches the eternal preexistence of this special Person

who was to come into the world. It is an extraordinary claim that this

One would be called, among other titles, “Mighty God, Everlasting

Father.” It is all the more significant when we remember that the

prophecy was addressed to an audience decidedly monotheistic; and

the fact that Isaiah could refer to this Son as “Mighty God, Everlasting

Father” was nothing short of astonishing, nothing short of a divine

revelation breaking through the prophet’s own accustomed way of

thinking.

The Son is the Father, “the Everlasting Father”? Talk about

having to live by faith!

What other aspects of our beliefs, contrary to accepted norms,

customs, and ways of thinking, do we have to take on raw, naked

faith and nothing else? Is there something wrong with having to

do that?

MONDAY

April 7

The Witness of the New Testament

Other evidence exists, now in the New Testament, that reveals the

preexistence of Jesus. Perhaps some of the most interesting ones come

from the mouth of Jesus Himself, as He says things that imply that He,

Himself, was aware of His own preexistence.

We find both direct and indirect indications that Jesus was, indeed,

conscious of His own history. As a possible example of an indirect

allusion to His preexistence, He said in Luke 19:10 that “ ‘the Son of

Man came to seek and save what was lost’ ”

(NIV). For example, if

someone says, “I came to London to work at the House of Commons,”

the person implies that she was somewhere else before. The person

who has been living in London all along does not use that expression.

An explicit statement from Jesus came in the words of His great

Passion Week prayer when He asked His Father to glorify Him “ ‘with

the glory I had with you before the world began’ ” (John 17:5, NIV).

How

do the following passages reveal not only the preexistence of

Christ but His own awareness of that preexistence?

John 3:13

____________________________________________________________________

John 8:23

____________________________________________________________________

John 8:58, 59

____________________________________________________________________

John 17:8, 24

____________________________________________________________________

“ ‘Before Abraham was, I am’ ” (John 8:58). The “I AM” expression

in this text and elsewhere suggests the idea of everlastingness, of eter-

nal preexistence. Jesus’ audience, understanding this point very well,

took up stones to kill Him for what they saw as outrageous blasphemy

(vs. 59).

“In speaking of His pre-existence, Christ carries the mind back

through dateless ages. He assures us that there never was a time when

He was not in close fellowship with the eternal God. He to whose

voice the Jews were then listening had been with God as one brought

up with Him.”—Ellen G. White,

Signs of the Times, Aug. 29, 1900.

How does Ellen G. White’s quote above, along with the texts we

have just look

ed at,

help us to better understand the incredible

sacrifice made in our behalf at the Cross?

_____________________________________________________

TUESDAY

April 8

Apparent Contradictions

Notwithstanding the clearest statements about Jesus’ deity and equal-

ity with God the Father, we still encounter passages that call for expla-

nation. One example occurs in what is undoubtedly the most beloved

and well-known text in all the Bible, John 3:16: “ ‘For God so loved

the world, that he gave his

only begotten son.’ ” The problem is, How

can the text say Jesus was “begotten” if He was eternal? Did someone

beget Him, just like the rest of us?

The expression “only begotten” is one word in the Greek language:

monogenes, occurring nine times in the New Testament, with five of

those references applying to Jesus and all five in the writings of John

(John 1:14, 18; 3:16, 18; 1 John 4:9). It is significant that all five ref-

erences occur in the writings of the very author who from the start of

his Gospel seeks to establish the deity of Jesus Christ. Indeed, he com-

mences precisely on that point: “In the beginning was the Word and

the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). It would

have been incredible that this Jewish writer would have attributed the

title of Deity to someone he considered a created being.

each of the following passages, the word monogenes refers to someone

other than Jesus. If you are unfamiliar with the Greek, guess from

the translation where the word falls. What do you think it means?

Luke 7:11–15

____________________________________________________________________

Luke 8:41, 42

____________________________________________________________________

Luke 9:38

____________________________________________________________________

The boy from Nain who had died is described as an “only son” (“the

only son of his mother”). No emphasis here on the idea of begetting.

Rather, the focus is on singleness, onlyness, uniqueness. The same is

true in regard to Jairus’s daughter—she was his “only . . . daughter,”

his

monogenes, the only one of a kind, his only child; in this sense she

was unique. That is also the point of Luke 9:38.

The weight of scholarly opinion favors the view that monogenes,

linguistically, does not place emphasis on begetting or begotten,

but rather on the oneness of a kind, on the idea of uniqueness.

How does this idea, too, help us better understand the great sac-

rifice made f

or us at the Cr

oss?

_____________________________________________________

WEDNESDAY

April 9

The Deity of Christ

The writers of the New Testament make it clear that Jesus deserves

the divine title of God. This fact takes on added significance when one

remembers that with the exception of Luke, all those writers were

Jews, strongly monotheistic, and not predisposed to using the Divine

titles carelessly. One must understand, therefore, that their testimony

to Jesus’ deity sprang from the deepest, Holy Spirit-inspired convic-

tion.

How

do the following passages make the case for Jesus’ deity?

Matt. 3:3

____________________________________________________________________

John 1:1

____________________________________________________________________

John 1:18

____________________________________________________________________

John 20:28

____________________________________________________________________

Matthew 3:3 harks back to Isaiah 40:3, where Isaiah uses the word

Yahweh, the most sacred name for God in the Old Testament. The con-

struction of the John 1:1 passage in the original language leaves no

doubt about what John was saying. Some 65 years after His death,

Jesus is being expressly called God by one who had been in close

association with Him. In regard to John 1:18, the Greek expression

used in the passage calls Jesus, in effect, “the unique God.”

Then how about John 20:28? Was this simply an exclamation, an

expression of surprise on Thomas’s part, the same way people today

would use the name of God to express astonishment or shock? To

come to that conclusion would be to read a modern practice back into

the New Testament. In the first place, the Jews, careful as they were

to stay clear of blasphemy, did not have the expression in their vocabu-

lary. Furthermore, the very construction of the passage militates

against such an interpretation. The passage says, “Thomas said to

him”

(NIV). Thomas, in other words, was addressing Jesus; it was an

expression of faith, not an exclamation of surprise. And the fact that

Jesus did not rebuke him shows that He was satisfied with Thomas’s

confession.

Jesus as God is the same J

esus w

ho offer

ed Himself as a sacri

fice for our sins. How much more should the Cross mean to us,

knowing that it was God—

God!—hanging there for our sins.

THURSDAY

April 10

And There’s More

The New Testament is full of evidence for Jesus’ deity, but space

prohibits more detailed elaboration here. We might have dealt with,

for example, such attributes as eternity and creatorship applied to

Jesus; His claim to forgive sins; His claim to be the final Judge of the

last day. In addition, we find the name of Jesus associated with that

of the Father on a footing of equality,

as in the baptismal formula

(Matt. 28:19). Also, in John 14:9, Jesus uses words that would consti-

tute obvious blasphemy on the lips of any other human being:

“ ‘Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father’ ” (NIV).

Take

a look at the following passages. What do they teach about

Christ’s divinity?

1 Cor. 1:3

____________________________________________________________________

2 Cor. 13:14

____________________________________________________________________

Rev. 20:6

____________________________________________________________________

Rev. 22:3

____________________________________________________________________

The above passages put Christ on an equal footing with the One

whom we have come to call “God the Father.” And this all measures

up with Jesus’ own declarations when He walked the dusty streets of

Palestine. In John 10:30, for example, He declared, “ ‘I and the Father

are one’ ”

(NIV). The neuter form of the Greek used here for “one”

implies a union as close as our minds can conceive. Jesus and the

Father are of one substance, one nature, yet not one and the same

Person (in which case He would have used the masculine gender). If

you have trouble plumbing the depths of all this, you have lots of com-

pany. The deeper you probe the subject, the more keenly you under-

stand the depths of your ignorance.

But imagine a situation in which the Being we have come to know

as God the Father came to die for us, and the One we have come to

know as Jesus stayed back in heaven (we are speaking in human terms

to make a point). Nothing would have changed, except that we would

have been calling Each by the name we now use for the Other. That is

what equality in the Deity means.

Review the life of Jesus, keeping in mind the points we have

touched on this w

eek.

What does all this tell us a

bout the char

ac-

ter of God? Why should we, knowing what we know about God, be

so full of hope and joy and trust, even in difficult circumstances?

FRIDAY

April 11

Further Study:

See Ellen G. White, “God With Us,” pp. 19–26, in

The Desire of Ages.

It is instructive to see how deftly Matthew and Luke deal with the

genealogy of Jesus (Matt 1:16, 18; Luke 3:23; compare 1:26–35).

These Bible writers could not have been more careful on this point.

What we find is a complete absence of any confusion on this funda-

mental point, with John’s Gospel providing perhaps the strongest

affirmation of Jesus’ deity anywhere in Scripture (John 1:1–3, 14). It

shows how critical is the concept of the virgin birth for the whole

scheme of salvation. The virgin birth, on which rests the affirmation

of Christ’s preexistence and deity, stands rock solid in the Gospels.

“Another dangerous error is the doctrine that denies the deity of

Christ, claiming that He had no existence before His advent to this

world. This theory is received with favor by a large class who profess

to believe the Bible; yet it directly contradicts the plainest statements

of our Saviour concerning His relationship with the Father, His divine

character, and His pre-existence. It cannot be entertained without the

most unwarranted wresting of the Scriptures. It not only lowers man’s

conceptions of the work of redemption, but undermines faith in the

Bible as a revelation from God. While this renders it the more dan-

gerous, it makes it also harder to meet. If men reject the testimony of

the inspired Scriptures concerning the deity of Christ, it is in vain to

argue the point with them; for no argument, however conclusive,

could convince them. . . . None who hold this error can have a true

conception of the character or the mission of Christ, or of the great

plan of God for man’s redemption.”—Ellen G. White,

The Great

Controversy,

p. 524.

Discussion Questions:

● Look at Ellen G. White’s quote above. Why is it so important

that we adhere to the doctrine of Christ’s deity and equality with

the Father? What would the plan of salvation lose were we to

abandon this teaching?

● How important is the incident of Matthew 9:1–8? How delib-

erate was Jesus about bringing the issue of His deity to a head?

What lessons was He trying to teach? What connection was He

making between our physical and our spiritual malady?

● Dwell on the implications of the deity of Christ,

in light of the

Cross. Be prepared to bring your thoughts on this topic to class

on Sabbath.

tor

INSIDE

Walking in Faith

José did not attend church, but he loved reading the Bible on his own.

He just wished that his wife would study with him. He found new truths

that excited him—and some things that baffled him.

One day José met an Adventist pastor who invited him to visit the

Adventist church. José went, and there he found answers to many ques-

tions. He learned about the Sabbath and decided to ask his boss for

Sabbaths off. He prayed for courage and went to see him. To his delight,

José’s boss agreed to give him Sabbaths off.

Then one day as José sat on the platform at church, he saw his boss enter

the sanctuary and stand in the back. When the service ended, José went to

greet him. His boss said, “A customer is waiting to see you at the office.

You must come to the office—now.”

“But today is my Sabbath,” José said. “I don’t go to the office today.”

With that his boss turned angrily and walked away. Realizing that perhaps

he had not explained the Sabbath clearly, José wrote a letter explaining

why he would not work on Saturdays. On Monday he gave the letter to his

boss, even though he might lose his job.

His wife learned of the letter and worried that his religion would leave

the family destitute. But José assured her that God would provide. José’s

company gave him Sabbaths off. Because of his steadfast faith, José’s wife

began attending church.

The couple started a small group in their home, which quickly grew.

They needed a larger place to worship. One day José saw some property

that would make an ideal location for a church. The little group prayed that

God would help them buy the land, and God answered their prayer. They

began saving to build a church.

When a hurricane ravaged their area, the group wondered what would

happen to their dream for a church. Then they learned that Maranatha

International was coming to rebuild churches and schools in Honduras.

The little group applied for help, and Maranatha built their church.

The new church holds 150 people, and the believers are working to fill

it. José goes door-to-door introducing people to Christ and holds four

evangelistic series a year. The congregation now has more than 60 mem-

bers, most of whom are new believers.

The church members are forming more small groups to help train new

believers to lead others to Christ. Following Christ’s methods, this group

has made a big impact on their community in Honduras. Our mission

offerings suppor

t lay evangelism in many forms. Thank you for your part

in telling the world about God’s love.

JOSÉ JOYA is a graphic designer living in Choluteca, Hondur

as.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.

Web site: www.adventistmission.org

L ESSON

*April 12–18

The Reality of His

Humanity

SABBATH AFTERNOON

Read for This W

eek’s Study:

Gal. 4:4; 1 Tim. 2:5; 3:16;

Heb. 4:15, 16; 1 John 4:1–3.

Memory Text:

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling

among us” (John 1:14, NIV).

n the New Testament, without any rationalistic explanations what-

soever, Jesus Christ is presented as both human and Divine. After

beginning his Gospel with the Word who is God

(John 1:1), John

makes the extraordinary declaration that this same Word, this same

God, “became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (vs. 14, NIV).

And perhaps anticipating future concerns about moral contamina-

tion, the New Testament maintains the sinless life of Jesus with

unequivocal consistency (Heb. 7:26, 1 Pet. 2:22). Moreover, the writ-

ers of the New Testament matter-of-factly regard Jesus as a proper

object of worship and veneration (Acts 7:59, Rom. 9:5, Heb. 1:6).

These earliest Christians were not detained by the philosophical

problems inherent in the concept of the God-man or by the difficul-

ties it would pose for later thinkers. “The humanity of the Son of God

is everything to us. . . . When we approach this subject, we would do

well to heed the words spoken by Christ to Moses at the burning

bush, ‘Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou

standest is holy ground’ (Exod. 3:5)

. We should come to this study

with the humility of a learner.”—Ellen G. White,

Selected Messages,

book 1, p. 244.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, April 19.

SUNDAY

April 13

In the Presence of Mystery (1 Tim. 3:16)

Last week’s lesson spoke about the mystery of Christ’s deity. But as

we contemplate His humanity, we stand also in the presence of a pro-

found mystery. As Paul expressed it: “Beyond all question, the mys-

tery of godliness is great: He [Jesus] appeared in a body, was vindi-

cated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the

nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory” (1 Tim.

3:16, NIV).

One scholar makes the point that the claim that the founder of

Christianity was Divine was not a big shock in the Roman world; after

all, their emperors routinely claimed divinity. But the claim that “the

Christian God was concerned about humanity; concerned enough to

suffer in its behalf. This was unheard of.”—Huston Smith,

The

Illustrated World’s Religions (New York: HarperCollins, 1986), p. 219.

But however strange to the Greco-Roman world, that, precisely, was

the testimony of the New Testament.

What

do the following passages teach about this amazing condescen-

sion?

Matt. 1:18–24

____________________________________________________________________

Luke 1:26–35

____________________________________________________________________

John 1:1, 14

____________________________________________________________________

Gal. 4:4

____________________________________________________________________

Phil. 2:5–11

____________________________________________________________________

It is fascinating to watch the unstudied precision with which the

New Testament writers approach the issue of Christ’s humanity.

Matter-of-fact and straightforward, they simply tell the story, with no

knowledge (perhaps) of the firestorm that would follow in succeeding

centuries. But it is precisely the absence of any posturing that helps

give credibility to the documents that we have. It is not as if the earli-

est disciples faced no contro

ersy in regard to the nature and identity

of Jesus; they did, as we see in the New Testament itself. But their

arguments in re

ard to Jesus’

person clearly were not designed to

counter the position of rationalistic or

scientific opponents, which

gives an unspoiled freshness to their witness. It was as though they

argued their case out of sur

prise that an

yone would dare to doubt the

uncommon mystery that had affected them so dramatically, both cor-

porately and personally.

MONDAY

April 14

Then There Was Conflict

As Christianity spread through the Greco-Roman world and moved

into the second generation, people began to reflect on its basic mes-

sage about Jesus’ person, and to raise questions: How could Divinity

and humanity cohabit the same body? How could Deity become mor-

tal? What is Jesus’ relationship to the Father? And so forth . . .

Beginning in the first century, two conflicting emphases emerged. One

would stress Christ’s humanity at the expense of His divinity; the other

would do just the opposite. Among those denying Christ’s deity were the

Ebionites, early Jewish Christians who taught that Jesus became the Son

of God only at His baptism, at which time He became united with the

eternal Christ, a nondivine being who could not save humanity but came,

instead, to call humanity to obedience. The Arians later would take up the

struggle against Christ’s divinity, beginning around the late third century,

a position strongly condemned by the Council of Nicaea in

A.D. 325.

The heavyweights on the other side of the spectrum were the

Gnostics, who taught that spirit was good and matter evil, particularly

the matter that forms our body. Therefore, the human body could not

serve as a vehicle for the revelation of the Supreme Being.

Study

1 John 4:1–3. In what way does John’s concern relate to the

Gnostic emphasis just described?

____________________________________________________________________

The controversy over who Jesus was raged for five solid centuries,

from the second century all the way down to the sixth. At first it was

over His deity. Was He God? And if so, how was He related to God

the Father? The questions then shifted to His humanity, and to how

Divinity and humanity were combined in a single person. There were

statements and counterstatements, pronouncements and counter-

pronouncements, accusations and condemnations and excommunica-

tions, with one “ism” after another claiming the day. Incredibly, amid

all the turmoil and controversy, biblical orthodoxy in respect to Jesus’

essential nature and person ultimately prevailed. (See the quotation

from the Creed of Chalcedon in Friday’s lesson.)

What are some of the questions in the church today about the

human nature of Christ? Why must we be careful not to let

these questions divide us, as they often did the early church?

_____________________________________________________

TUESDAY

April 15

He Took Our Nature (Gal. 4:4)

Many of His contemporaries considered Jesus an unusual person,

yet they each knew Him to be a human being, a man. When the

Samaritan woman rushed to her village to spread the word about the

unusual Jew she just had met at the well, her announcement was

straightforward: “ ‘Come, see a man’” (John 4:29, NIV). Hers was the

universal testimony of Jesus’ contemporaries. Even after He had

calmed the storm, the exclamation of those closest to Him was,

“ ‘What kind of man is this?’ ” (Matt. 8:27, NIV).

How

do the following texts help support the fact that Jesus was a gen-

uine human being of flesh and blood?

Matt. 8:24

____________________________________________________________________

Matt. 21:18

____________________________________________________________________

John 4:5, 6

____________________________________________________________________

John 4:7, 19:28

____________________________________________________________________

John 11:33–35

____________________________________________________________________

While on earth, Jesus voluntarily surrendered the independent exer-

cise of the Divine attributes. He surrendered; He did not relinquish.

The attributes remained in Him. He could have used them at any time

for His own advantage, but He did not. The temptation to call on these

attributes to extricate Himself from difficulty (in ways not open to us)

was a major ingredient of His daily trials.

It is helpful to keep in mind that the Scriptures are not definitive on

every point that stirs our interest. They make no overt attempt, for

example, to spell out precisely how the human and Divine compo-

nents of Jesus’ nature are related. But they make it clear that Christ

was

one unified person. They do not discuss the technicalities of this

union, limiting themselves, rather, to the clear confession that such a

union did occur, that the Son made of a w

oman was, indeed, the Son

of God (Gal. 4:4). “Christ did not make-believe take human nature;

He did verily tak

e it. He did in reality possess human nature.”—Ellen

G. White,

Lift Him Up, p. 74.

Why is Christ’

s humanity so important to us? What does it mean

to us to know that Jesus became a human being? How does it

encourage you to know that Jesus shared our human limitations?

WEDNESDAY

April 16

To Feel Our Pain (Heb. 4:15, 16)

Why did God need to come into the world in human flesh? The

question is important. But we should wean ourselves away from

purely rational answers to it. It is not as if we need to come up with an

answer that makes sense to us. There is no independent research we

can do in philosophy, science, sociology, or whatever, that would lead

us to an answer. Nor should we concoct our own answer. The safest

way is to listen carefully to what the Bible itself reveals on this point.

And in the book of Hebrews, we find some of the clearest, most inten-

tional statements on the issue. Nor is it without significance that

Hebrews also happens to be the book focusing most directly on Jesus’

present high priestly ministry in the heavenly sanctuary.

Each

of the following passages highlights one particular aspect of Jesus’

coming in human flesh, then proceeds to answer the implied ques-

tion: Why did He do that? And in each case a reason for that par-

ticular aspect of His humiliation is given. What are those reasons?

Heb. 2:9

____________________________________________________________________

Heb. 2:14, 15

____________________________________________________________________

Heb. 2:16, 17

____________________________________________________________________

Heb. 2:18

____________________________________________________________________

Heb. 4:14–16

____________________________________________________________________

Heb. 5:8, 9

____________________________________________________________________

Notice that in each case, the focus is on Jesus; and in each case, the

benefit is for us. These inspired reasons for Jesus’ humanity and suffer-

ing should be taken with utter seriousness. They should bring us

immense joy to know that Jesus meets us in our need; His arms are open

wide for us; He knows our plight because He has been here;

He has felt

our pain. Can we imagine a more merciful Savior, a more understand-

ing and compassionate High Priest? Immense joy and profound grati-

tude wells up in the souls of those who know that He suffered all for us.

Thus encouraged, we “approach the throne of grace with confidence”

(Heb. 4:16, NIV), giving ourselves to Him in complete abandon.

What trials are you encountering at the moment? How does it

help you to know that Jesus feels and understands your pain?

THURSDAY

April 17

An Eternal Solidarity (1 Tim. 2:5)

When we imagine the huge difference between God and ourselves,

it is astounding to think that God would reach out to us by conde-

scending to take on human flesh. But after He was done, most of us

would have been content for Him to abandon His affinity with us and

return fully to what He was before. However—and this absolutely

astounds us—we learn that Jesus will forever remain in solidarity with

us by retaining our nature!

Consider

the implications of the following passages in regard to

Jesus’ eternal solidarity with us:

Luke 24:36–43

____________________________________________________________________

Acts 1:10, 11

____________________________________________________________________

Acts 17:31

____________________________________________________________________

1 Tim. 2:5

____________________________________________________________________

“By His life and His death, Christ has achieved even more than

recovery from the ruin wrought through sin. It was Satan’s purpose to

bring about an eternal separation between God and man; but in Christ

we become more closely united to God than if we had never fallen. In

taking our nature, the Saviour has bound Himself to humanity by a tie

that is never to be broken. Through the eternal ages He is linked with

us. ‘God so loved the world . . .’ He gave Him not only to bear our sins,

and to die as our sacrifice; He gave Him to the fallen race. To assure

us of His immutable counsel of peace, God gave His only-begotten

Son to become one of the human family, forever to retain His human

nature. . . . God has adopted human nature in the person of His Son,

and has carried the same into the highest heaven. It is the ‘Son of man’

who shares the throne of the universe.”—Ellen G. White,

The Desire

of Ages, p. 25. “Christ ascended to heaven, bearing a sanctified, holy

humanity. He took this humanity with Him into the heavenly courts,

and through the eternal ages He will bear it, as the One who has

redeemed every human being in the city of God.”—Ellen G. White,

The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 6, p. 1054.

A friend of y

our

s, hearing about Jesus’ eternal solidarity with

us, says, “That is going too far. It is too much!” What would you

say to that person? And how do you feel about the fact He will

be like us for eternity? However incredible a concept, what does

it tell us about God’s love for humanity?

FRIDAY

April 18

Further Study:

In the centuries-old controversy over the person of

Jesus, the Council of Chalcedon (A.D. 451) marked a significant mile-

post. Essentially, it agreed and proclaimed that Jesus Christ is fully

God and fully man: “. . . we all with one voice teach that . . . our Lord

Jesus Christ is one and the same God, the Same perfect in Godhead,

the Same perfect in manhood, truly God and truly man, . . . [one] with

the Father as to his Godhead, and . . . [one] with us as to his manhood;

in all things like unto us, sin only excepted.”—Cited in Justo L.

Gonzalez,

A History of Christian Thought, vol. 1 (Nashville:

Abingdon Press, 1970), p. 390. For an assessment of the implications

of the Chalcedon statement from an Adventist perspective, see Roy

Adams, The Nature of Christ (Hagerstown, Md.: Review and Herald

Publishing Association, 1994), pp. 57–72.

“In contemplating the incarnation of Christ in humanity, we stand

baffled before an unfathomable mystery. . . . The more we reflect upon

it, the more amazing does it appear. How wide is the contrast between

the divinity of Christ and the helpless infant in Bethlehem’s manger!

How can we span the distance between the mighty God and a helpless

child? And yet the Creator of worlds, He in whom was the fullness of

the Godhead bodily, was manifest in the helpless babe in the manger.

Far higher than any of the angels, equal with the Father in dignity and

glory, and yet wearing the garb of humanity! Divinity and humanity

were mysteriously combined, and man and God became one. It is in

this union that we find the hope of our fallen race.”—Ellen G. White,

Signs of the Times, July 30, 1896.

Discussion Questions:

● What for you are the big issues surrounding Christ’s human-

ity? Why are they important for you? At the same time, why must

we be careful not to be too harsh or dogmatic about the finer

points of Christ’s humanity?

● Ellen G. White says that Christ’s humanity is everything to us

(see Selected Messages, vol. 1, p. 244). What did she mean? In

what practical ways does the idea of Christ’s humanity affect you

in your Christian walk?

● How might we use what we have studied in this week’s lesson

in our personal witness? How does the reality of Christ’s human-

ity touch people where they live today?

tor

INSIDE

The Woman Who Didn’t Like

God

by HEIDEMARIE KLINGEBERG

On a snowy March day in Germany, a woman who had not liked God was

baptized into the Adventist Church.

“I thought Christians were weak people who could not manage their lives

by themselves,” Ute testified. “Then I met my neighbor Frank. He manages

his life and a demanding job quite well. One day he invited my children to join

Pathfinders at his church. ‘They will learn a lot of useful things, and it will be

good for them,’ ” Frank said.

“

Why not? I thought. My youngest daughter joined Pathfinders and really

enjoyed it.

“Frank invited me to attend a Pathfinders reception in the church. I wasn’t

so sure I wanted to meet these strange people, but I decided to go in spite of

my concerns.

“I entered the church with mixed feelings and looked around the sanctuary.

It was so simple, not as I had expected. And the pastor seemed normal and

friendly.

“I liked the people I met that day. They were not weird at all. I started attend-

ing church and had to admit that I really enjoyed it. The warmth and love the

people showed me made me feel accepted and loved. Each week I took part

with greater enthusiasm and commitment in the worship at the Adventist

Church. I was growing spiritually.

“I began reading the Bible for myself, starting with the Old Testament. But

that was too hard. I went on the Internet and searched for something in

German to help me understand the Bible better. There I discovered the Voice

of Hope Bible correspondence course. I enrolled, and I began completing the

Bible study guides with growing enthusiasm. Studying the Bible became

almost an addiction! My coach encouraged me when I got stuck and answered

my frequent questions.

“I have learned so much from the Bible studies, and my life has changed a

great deal. I have discovered that the Bible gives me what I call operating

instructions for my daily life, and from studying God’s ‘manual,’ I get great

joy. I have discovered that I have a loving heavenly Father who will help me

through life’s bumps.

“I sealed my commitment to God through baptism and started a new life.

My sorrows are not all gone, but Jesus goes with me into battle and has prom-

ised never to leave me. I have seen Him work out several problems already.

“The future may not be easy, but I am confident in spite of problems, for

Jesus and my new brothers and sisters in Christ are beside me.”

HEIDEMARIE KLINGEBERG works with Stimme der Hoffnung, the Voice of Hope Media Center

in Darmstadt, German

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.

Web site: www.adventistmission.org

L ESSON

*April 19–25

The Wisdom of His

Teachings

SABBATH AFTERNOON

Read for This Week’s Study:

Matthew 5–7, 20:25–28,

John 4:22–24, 8:1–11.

Memor

y Text:

“The people were amazed at his teaching, because

he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of

the law”

(Mark 1:22, NIV).

esus could have flashed bright beams of light on the darkest mys-

teries of science, but He would not spare a moment from teaching

the knowledge of the science of salvation. His time, His knowl-

edge, His faculties, His life itself, were appreciated only as the means

of working out the salvation of the souls of men.”—Ellen G. White,

Mind, Character, and Personality, vol. 1, p. 245.

There is a danger that in talking about the wisdom of His teachings

(as in the title of this week’s lesson), we may not distinguish enough

between Jesus and other (so-called) wise teachers across the centuries.

Jesus’ teachings were not simply wise. They contained, in addition, a

qualitative element that essentially distinguished them from every-

thing that preceded or has since followed. There was about them a cer-

tain finality, a conclusiveness not found elsewhere. In other words,

this was God talking in human flesh. However much the people did

not know about the true identity of Christ, they still could tell there

was something unique about Him and w

hat He said. “The cro

wds

were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had

authority”

(Matt. 7:28, 29, NIV).

This week we will look at just what some of those teachings were.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, April 26.

SUNDAY

April 20

The Greatest Sermon (Matthew 5–7)

Year after year hundreds of thousands of sermons make their way

into the realm of oblivion. Some are remembered for a while, then for-

gotten. What would it take to have a particular sermon not only

remembered and quoted for two thousand years but even identified by

the place of its delivery? Such is the Sermon on the Mount.

During the First World War, the Society of Friends printed

The

Sermon on the Mount as a separate pamphlet, without commentary,

for distribution among the allied forces. But both the British and

French governments forbade its distribution among their troops. After

all, a sermon telling people to love their enemies was not exactly what

you wanted men on the front lines in a war to be reading!

Read

through the Beatitudes (Matt. 5:3–12). Which aspects do you

find most meaningful for the experiences you are going through

right now?

____________________________________________________________________

In the Beatitudes some elements merely describe the condition in

which we may find ourselves. The person who “mourns,” for instance,

does not seek that state. But meekness (or better, humility) we should

seek; as the prophet says, “Seek righteousness, seek humility [meek-

ness]” (Zeph. 2:3, NIV). Hungering and thirsting after righteousness is

not a state natural to us humans, nor can we manufacture it. But we

are admonished to seek after it.

Give

a brief summary of the following teachings that appear (among

others) in the rest of the sermon:

1. Our influence in society

(Matt. 5:13–16)

2. The law of God (Matt. 5:17–20)

3. Heart religion (Matt. 5:21–30)

4. Divorce (Matt. 5:31, 32)

5. Retaliation (Matt. 5:38–42)

6. Love for enemies (Matt. 5:43–48)

7. Prayer (Matt. 6:5–15)

As you reflect on the Beatitudes and the rest of the sermon,

which aspects do y

ou find most pointed? Which most keenly

cuts across your accustomed ways, your own cultural norms?

What changes do y

ou need to mak

e in order to be more in har-

mony with these words from God?

MONDAY

April 21

What He Taught About God

Into a world dark with misunderstanding about the person and char-

acter of God, Jesus came to set things straight, by His life and by His

word. Coming from the very essence of God, He brought a revelation

of God that could not be improved upon. In the past, the prophets had

spoken about God; but now, “in these last days,” God was speaking

“by his Son . . . through whom he made the universe”

(Heb. 1:1, 2,

NIV).

Through Jesus, in other words, we have the ultimate disclosure

of the Supreme Being.

What

is Jesus saying about God in following passages?

Matt. 5:8, 9

____________________________________________________________________

Matt. 18:5, 6, 10; 19:13, 14

____________________________________________________________________

John 4:22–24

____________________________________________________________________

John 10:27–30

____________________________________________________________________

A critical test of the decency of any society, ancient or modern, is

the value it places upon the most vulnerable of its members, and there

is none more vulnerable than children. Jesus’ regard for these tender

ones must have come as a breath of fresh air to those poor mothers two

thousand years ago when He vigorously defended their children’s

right of access to Him, when He made time in His hectic calendar for

these tiny tots, time to touch them and to bless them.

God is like that, Jesus’ action said. He cares for the children and, by

extension, for all who are vulnerable and exploited. He is the God of

the underdog. As He sat there with these little ones looking into His face,

Jesus must have thought of what we call “the Slaughter of the Innocents”

by Herod on account of Him

(Matt. 2:16–18), and the bloody edict of

an ancient pharaoh against all Jewish male infants (Exod. 1:15, 16).

Jesus came to model a God who was the complete antithesis of these

murderous psychopaths.

From what you have read above, what picture of God does Jesus

present? How have you experienced these aspects of God’s char-

acter yourself? Even more important, how well do you reflect

those aspects of His char

acter in y

our o

wn life?

_____________________________________________________

TUESDAY

April 22

What He Taught About Forgiveness

(Matt. 6:12–14)

Of all the words that we might associate with Jesus, forgiveness has to

be right there among the top. Jesus and forgiveness go together. Amid the

excruciating agony of the cross, and as soldiers and people derided and

abused Him, the heartrending words stumbled out through quivering

lips: “ ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing’ ”

(Luke 23:34, NIV). And in the Sermon on the Mount He went so far as

to say that if we do not forgive those who offend us, then we should not

expect God to forgive our offenses against Him (Matt. 6:12, 14, 15).

What

is Jesus teaching about forgiveness in each of the following pas-

sages? Mark 2:5–12; Luke 7:36–50; 17:3, 4; John 8:1–11.

____________________________________________________________________

The

wonderful statements about forgiveness notwithstanding, what cau-

tionary, balancing factors do we find in the following passages?

(Matt. 12:31, 32; 18:6; Mark 14:21).

____________________________________________________________________

In Mark 14:21, Jesus uttered a woe upon the “man who betrays the

Son of Man.” But suppose that man were to confess and repent? In this

connection, contrast the actions of Judas and Peter following their sep-

arate betrayals of Jesus. After witnessing Jesus’ condemnation by

those who had arrested Him, Judas, “seized with remorse,” returned

the betrayal money to the authorities, and his words seemed most

appropriate: “I have sinned, for I have betrayed innocent blood”

(Matt.

27:3, 4, NIV). In contrast to Judas’s public display of regret, Peter’s

tears of penitence were shed in silence; nor did he return to Caiaphas’s

judgment hall to make amends for his shameful betrayal. Yet, the one

was condemned, the other forgiven. What was the crucial difference?

How are we to understand forgiveness in a practical sense? For

instance, a woman can forgive a husband who beats her, but

does forgiveness mean leaving oneself vulnerable to more

abuse? How can w

e forgive while at the same time be wise and

prudent enough to protect ourselves and others from those who

have violated our trust?

WEDNESDAY

April 23

What He Taught About Humility

(Matt. 20:25–28)

In a 1995 survey, some athletes were asked the following question:

If there was a drug you could take that would guarantee you’d receive

a gold medal at the Olympics but that would kill you in five years,

would you take it? More than 50 percent said Yes. It is a commentary

on the lure of fame and power on contemporary society. To be “in

front of the camera,” to hold millions drooling in the palm of our hand,

that is the rage of the twenty-first century.

And that same general spirit can invade the church, if we do not

remain constantly on guard. The lust for power over others (the drive

to be in control, the hunger for the first place) has not diminished with

the passing of the years.

Study

the following passages in the context of this insatiable struggle

for the top:

Matt. 18:1–6

____________________________________________________________________

Matt. 20:25–28

____________________________________________________________________

Matt. 23:1, 5–12

____________________________________________________________________

1 Pet. 5:1–4

____________________________________________________________________

The harsh events of history sometimes have sent proud dictators

scrambling penniless among refugees or cowering in solitary confine-

ment, taking orders from third-class prison wardens. There even have

been times when a monarch temporarily gives up the throne to make

common lot with the marginalized members of society. But all these

cases put together, voluntary or coerced, pale in comparison with the

magnitude of the condescension we see in Christ. He was “in very

nature God,” Paul says; that is the

God of the universe we are talking

about here! “But [He] made himself nothing, taking the very nature of

a servant, being made in human likeness.” Descending further yet, “he

humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a

cross!”

(Phil. 2:5–8, NIV).

In light of the Cross, in light of the amazing condescension of

the Son of God, why should all forms of self-exaltation be

brought to shame? How can we protect ourselves from this sub-

tle yet very dang

ous f

orm of self-deception?

_____________________________________________________

THURSDAY

April 24

What He Taught About Grace—and

Faith

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not

from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works” (Eph. 2:8, 9, NIV).

The words are from the apostle Paul as he reflected on the Christian mes-

sage of salvation, which he expressed differently than Jesus did. In fact,

one might be tempted to ask whether Jesus believed in righteousness by

faith. But to ask that question is to grossly misunderstand both Paul and

Jesus. Jesus’ approach to teaching about grace seemed at times to go in

a different direction; one reason, incidentally, that we should not be too

legalistic with one another over the exact formulas we each use to

describe God’s marvelous act of grace in Jesus, and our response to it.

Jesus came as the epitome of grace. He was grace personified. To

encounter Him was to encounter grace. “We have seen his glory,” John

wrote, “the glory of the One and Only, . . . full of grace and truth”

(John 1:14, NIV).

the following passages, what is Jesus teaching about grace and faith?

Matt. 14:28–31

____________________________________________________________________

Matt. 20:1–15

____________________________________________________________________

Luke 7:36–48

____________________________________________________________________

Luke 15:11–31

____________________________________________________________________

John 8:1–11

____________________________________________________________________

From these passages, we learn something of the many ways Jesus

taught about grace, through His parables and through the object les-

sons of His own life. How could Peter ever forget his utter helpless-

ness in the face of the deadly elements that surrounded him that night

on the lake? His only recourse was to cry out to a Power beyond him-

self. And instantly the response was there! No delay. No need for

penance. No complicated formula or requirement. Just three words,

coming naturally from his extreme desperation: “Lord, save me!”

(Matt. 14:30, NIV). And immediately the hand of Jesus was on him.

That is grace.

Of the various accounts listed above, which one speaks to you

most powerfully of God’s grace? Having received such grace

yourself, how can you be more willing to give it to others just as

undeserving as yourself?

FRIDAY

April 25

Further Study:

According to historian Huston Smith, Jesus’ teach-

ings “may be the most repeated in history.

‘Love your neighbor as

yourself. What you would like people to do to you, do to them. Come

unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you

rest. You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’ Most

of the time, though, he told stories: of buried treasure, of sowers who

went out to sow, of pearl merchants, of a good Samaritan. People who

heard these stories were moved to exclaim, ‘This man speaks with

authority. Never spoke man thus!’ . . . The most impressive thing

about the teachings of Jesus is not that he taught them but that he

appears to have lived them. From the accounts that we have, his entire

life was one of humility, self-giving, and love that sought not its own.

The supreme evidence of his humility is that it is impossible to dis-

cover precisely what Jesus thought of himself. He wasn’t concerned

with that. He was concerned with what people thought of God. . . . We

have seen that he ignored the barriers that mores erected between peo-

ple. He loved children. He hated injustice, and perhaps hated

hypocrisy even more because it hid people from themselves.”—

The

Illustrated World’s Religions, (New York: HarperCollins, 1986) pp. 212,

213.

Discussion Questions:

● Many issues that have concerned us in recent times Jesus

never touched (drug abuse, health reform, homosexuality, slav-

ery, cloning, abortion, etc.). What conclusions should we draw

from these omissions? What conclusions should we not draw?

● What role might Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness play in issues

of international conflict today? How can Christians bring that

teaching to bear upon the resolution of issues in their homes,

churches, and communities? When is forgiveness

not the answer

to the particular problems faced by nations and individuals, or is

it always the answer?

● Notwithstanding its universal appeal, the Sermon on the

Mount often is ignored when we confront the real problems of

life. Why do you think this is so? And how is it in your own life?

In what ways could you consciously try to apply these principles

in your own walk with the Lord?

tor

INSIDE

The Sidetracked Shuttle

by HOMER TRECARTIN

Pastor Dave Weigley boarded the airport shuttle and sat down, eager to

relax a little before his meetings. He thought of the evangelistic meetings

he had held in this Florida city a year earlier and wondered how the new

members were doing. And what about the people who had come to the

meetings but did not make a decision to follow Jesus?

His thoughts were interrupted by a woman’s voice. “Please, just drop me

off on your way to the hotel.” Grudgingly the driver agreed to take the

woman to her home.

The shuttle bus wound through traffic and stopped in front of a familiar-

looking block of apartments. Pastor Weigley jumped up to help the woman

with her bag. “Do you live here?” he asked.

“Yes,” the woman said. Excited, Pastor Weigley asked if a certain woman

still lived there. The woman eyed him and slowly answered, “Yes, she still

lives there.”

The shuttle door closed, and Pastor Weigley sat down.

This has to be

more than coincidence, he thought. What does God want me to do?

The woman he asked about had attended the meetings he had held, but

in spite of many visits and prayers, she had not given her heart to Christ.

Now God had led him back to her apartment complex. Weigley promised

God that he would visit the woman before leaving town.

A few days later Weigley returned to the apartment where the woman

lived. As he climbed the stairs he thought,

How do I greet someone whose

name I don’t remember? He knocked on the door, but heard nothing from

inside. As he turned to leave, the door opened and the woman exclaimed,

“Well, Pastor Weigley. Please come in.”

He entered and found the woman had company—a friend and another

pastor who Weigley recognized. The women were as surprised as he was.

Pastor Weigley told the others about his experience on the shuttle bus. The

other pastor explained that he had come to apologize for an incident that

had happened years earlier.

The two pastors prayed and invited the women to give their hearts to

Jesus. With tears in her eyes, the woman who had attended the meetings

knelt and surrendered to Christ. This woman has since been baptized, in

part because two pastors had followed the Holy Spirit’s leading and found

a wanderer ready to come home.

Our mission offerings support outreach—both organized evangelism and

personal witness.

Thank y

ou for sharing God’s love through your offerings.

DAV E WEIGLEY is president of the Columbia Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in

Maryland, U.S.A. Homer Trecartin is planning director for the Office of Adventist Mission

at the General Confer

ence

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.

Web site: www.adventistmission.org

L ESSON

*April 26–May 2

The Wonder of His

Works

SABBATH AFTERNOON

Read for This Week’s Study:

Matt. 4:23–25; 8:25–27;

11:2–6; 12:22, 23; Acts 3:19–21.

Memory Text:

“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on

them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without

a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36, NIV).

ven the most cursory reading of the life of Jesus as presented in

the Gospels reveals an interesting fact: With the exception of

the amazing events surrounding His birth, very little of Jesus’

childhood and early years are recounted. This gap has led to all sorts

of speculation through the centuries about what Christ had done dur-

ing all those lost years. Nothing, though, comes close to what Ellen G.

White wrote in

The Desire of Ages (“As a Child”).

Instead, the Bible focuses on His adult life, specifically the three

and a half years of His ministry. What a three and a half years they

were!

The world has experienced nothing like it. His works, always for

others, and completely without capriciousness, are presented as evi-

dence of a new day dawning, the birth of the kingdom of God. The

moment the Sermon on the Mount ended, the scene changed abruptly,

with Jesus immediately plunging Himself into the needs of the people

(see Matthew 8, 9). For Jesus it was not just words. He had the works

to more than back up the words.

The kingdom of God had ar

ed, and Jesus was there to inaugurate it.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, May 3.

SUNDAY

April 27

What Kind of Man Is This? (Matt. 8:25–27)

Read

Matthew 8:1–4.What do you find significant about these verses

in regard to the reasons for Jesus’ coming into the world?

____________________________________________________________________

The way Matthew tells it, the healing of the leper takes place as

soon as Jesus comes down from the mountain. Fresh from delivering

the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus runs smack into the furrow of human

need in the valley. And the first challenge He confronts is leprosy, a

symbol of our sinful human plight. Jesus touches the leper (what to

make of that?), and the leprosy is gone! Such is the power of our Lord.

In what follows in the rest of Matthew 8 and in chapter 9, Matthew

would depict Jesus as having power over nature: He calms the storm

(Matt. 8:23–27); power over demons: He frees the demoniacs (vss.

28–33); power “over sickness, disease, and infirmity”: He heals the

paralytic and the woman with a hemorrhage (vss. 1–9, 20–22); and

power over death: He brings Jairus’s daughter back to life (vss. 18, 19,

23–26). Making it personal, Jesus has power over the storms of our

lives, over the demons in our lives, and over the disorders (of whatever

description) that plague us.

What

lessons can we learn from Matthew 8:23–27?

____________________________________________________________________

In certain ancient mythologies, water was regarded as a foe that God

overcomes. “To Israel, the raging, unruly waters symbolized the pow-

ers which are opposed to God’s sovereignty.”—

The Interpreter’s

Dictionary of the Bible (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1962), vol. R–Z,

p. 809. The reaction of Jesus’ disciples should be ours, as well: “What

kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!” (Matt.

8:27, NIV). In a way, their exclamation recalls a statement in the first

chapter of Isaiah, where God calls heaven and earth to witness the

rebellious determination of His people. “The ox knows his master, the

donkey his owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do

not understand” (Isa. 1:3, NIV). Of all creation, His people are the

only ones disloyal. So here we may well ask whether we are the only

entities of nature to stand in resistance to Jesus. The winds and the

waves obey Him. What about us?

MONDAY

April 28

The Sheer Marvel of It

It is not often that one pays attention to the paragraph headings in

those modern versions of the Bible that have them. But one in Matthew

9 in the New International Version comes close to a comprehensive

description of the wonder of Jesus’works of healing, mercy, and power.

“A Dead Girl and a Sick Woman,” it says. The words depict the chal-

lenge constantly confronting the Savior during His time with us; not

the kind of challenge one could bluff one’s way through. Yet, Jesus con-

fronted it all. That day, the dead girl came back to life, and the bleed-

ing woman, after 12 years of misery, got a brand-new start.

Reflect

on the following passages (or at least on as many as you are

able). Do not write anything. Just simply be amazed by the sheer

marvel of it all, at the wonderful Savior we have. (Matt. 9:27–34;

12:22, 23; 14:25–31, 34–36; 15:29–31; 20:29–34; Mark 2:1–12;

Luke 6:19).

To grasp the full power of these passages, one must take them

slowly, trying to recapture their original setting. In Matthew 12:22, 23,

for instance, the man brought to Jesus is both blind and mute. Close

your eyes and put a finger over your lips for a while, and try to imag-

ine the condition of that unfortunate soul. In that state you do not

know what is around you, and you cannot ask. But the man meets

Jesus and leaves His holy presence with eyes wide open and with his

tongue unsealed in praise!

Then how about Matthew 15:30, 31: “Great crowds came to him,

bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and

laid them at his feet; and he healed them. The people were amazed when

they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking

and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel”

(NIV).

It even got better. Matthew 14:34–36 and Luke 6:19 tell us that peo-

ple pressed forward to touch the Savior “because power was coming

from him and healing them all”

(Luke 6:19, NIV).

Jesus promised that His followers will do greater things than He

did. What does that mean? Why are we not seeing such marvels

of healing and restoration today? Or, in some places, are we see-

ing it? How does the church’s healing ministry today compare

with the example that Jesus set? How can you as an individual

in modern times help contin

ue Jesus’ healing ministry?

_____________________________________________________

TUESDAY

April 29

The Motive Behind It (Matt. 4:23–25)

Back in the 1980s, undercover investigators conducted a sting opera-

tion on certain American televangelists. Noticing that these preachers

would invite people to send in their personal prayer requests to the broad-

cast, with urgent appeals that they enclose a gift “to keep the program on

the air,” the investigators wanted to know what happened to those dona-

tions and prayer requests. What they discovered shocked them. Staffers

for the televangelists would go to the post office, collect the letters sent

in by listeners, open them on the spot, fish out the donations, then dump

the prayer requests right there in the post office trash bins.

In the key passage above, we read of Jesus traversing the entire area

of Galilee, with huge crowds following Him from all across the

region. And when Matthew returns to that same theme in chapter 9, he

adds a critical dimension that forever distinguishes the motives of

Jesus from that of these charlatans of the airwaves.

Read

Matthew 9:35, 36. How does it describe the motive that pro-

pelled Jesus’ ministry?

____________________________________________________________________

The word compassion comes from a Greek word (splagchnon) that

refers to “the inward parts,” “the bowels,” considered the seat of the

emotions in the ancient world. Compassion goes beyond sympathy

(which merely can be intellectual). Compassion comes from the

inside, from the heart and even the very gut.

That is what Jesus had. For Him, grabbing people’s money and

dumping their heartrending prayer requests into post office garbage

bins would have been inconceivable. Again and again in the Gospels,

the quality of compassion describes His attitude toward the people. A

leper begs Him: “ ‘If you are willing, you can make me clean.’ ” Jesus,

“filled with compassion,” reaches out to him: “ ‘I am willing. . . . Be

clean!’ ”

(Mark 1:40, 41, NIV; cf. Matt. 20:29–34, Mark 10:46–52).

If you can imagine someone doing all this with ne

ver a thought of

personal gain, never a thought that what he is doing will be

picked

up by the press,

or at least will look good on a résumé—with

absolutely no thought of personal gain whatsoever—then you are

thinking about Jesus. The single force that moved Him was love,

love from the bell

ve from the gut. The Gospels call it

compas

sion.

To what extent does compassion like this undergird your

feelings and actions toward others?

WEDNESDAY

April 30

Sign of a New Day (Matt. 11:2–6)

From his prison cell, John the Baptist sent an urgent message to

Jesus: “ ‘Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect some-

one else?’ ” (Matt. 11:3, NIV). For the reader of the Gospels, it is a

surprising and unexpected question. Was this not the same John who

so confidently announced the Messiahship of Jesus at the Jordan

(John 1:29–36)? And why would he raise the question precisely after he

had “heard in prison what Christ was doing” (Matt. 11:2, NIV)? What

is important for our study here, however, is Jesus’ response: “Go back

and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the

lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are

raised, and the good news is preached to the poor” (vss. 4, 5, NIV).

Jesus’ coded message to John was that His ministry was the sign of

a new day dawning; the Messiah had, indeed, arrived. Surely in the

back of Jesus’ mind as He spoke were the glorious Messianic proph-

ecies in the book of Isaiah, among others.

Read

Isaiah 29:18, 19; 35:5, 6; 61:1–3. How do these passages relate

to Jesus’ ministry? Why do you think John and others were so

slow to catch on?

____________________________________________________________________

The idea of Jesus’ ministry as a fulfillment of prophecy and the

dawning of the Messianic age comes through clearly in Matthew’s

own interpretation of events, in the way he anchors Jesus’ activities in

the broader, Messianic context: “This was to fulfill what was spoken

through the prophet Isaiah: ‘He took up our infirmities and carried our

diseases’ ”

(Matt. 8:17, NIV; citing Isa. 53:4). We see this same idea

playing out in Matthew’s summary description of Jesus’ overall min-

istry: “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their

synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing

every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compas-

sion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep

without a shepherd”

(Matt. 9:35, 36, NIV; see also Matt. 4:23–25).

Looking back, we marvel at how John and others could have been

so slow to see who Jesus was. Of course, hindsight is always very

clear.What about us today? How might we be just as blind to what

should be obvious truths? More important, how can we change?

_____________________________________________________

THURSDAY

May 1

Sign of the Final Restoration (Acts 3:19–21)

The marvelous healing of the demon-possessed man who was blind

and mute, rather than bringing shouts of Hallelujahs from the

Pharisees, brought instead a charge: “ ‘It is only by Beelzebub, the

prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons’ ”

(Matt. 12:24,

NIV). Thus was Jesus prompted to give an instructive explanation of

the meaning of what was happening: “ ‘But if I drive out demons by

the Spirit of God,’ ” He said, dismissing the Pharisees’ inference,

“ ‘then the kingdom of God has come upon you’ ”

(vs. 28).

The statement is important, since in the teaching of the Gospels, the

kingdom of God is not only a present reality (as evident most directly

in the above statement) but also a future reality (see Matt. 26:29,

Luke 23:42, John 18:36).

What this means is that the works of Christ also look forward to the

final restoration. When Jesus applied the pivotal prophecy of Isaiah to

Himself during the reading of the scrolls in the synagogue at Nazareth

(Luke 4:18, 19), He was proclaiming much more than would happen

within the brief three and a half years of His own earthly ministry.

“The year of the Lord’s favor,” harking back as it does to the ancient

Jubilee, was an announcement of the inauguration of the kingdom of

God, beginning with the coming of the Messiah, and reaching all the

way down to the final consummation, when all prisoners will have

been set free, all sight restored, all oppression removed, and when joy

will pervade the entire cosmos.

What

do the following passages teach about the relationship between

Jesus’ ministry and the final restoration? (Mark 5:35–42, Luke

7:11–15, John 11:38–44, Acts 3:19–21).

The most powerful sign of the reign of sin is death. And the restora-

tion of life by Jesus during His ministry pointed forward to that final

day when death will be no more. “ ‘I am the Living One,’ ” says the

resurrected Christ in John’s apocalyptic vision, “ ‘I was dead, and

behold I am alive for ever . . . ! And I hold the keys of death and

Hades’ ”

(Rev. 1:18, NIV). Those whom Jesus restored to life during

His ministry all succumbed to death again. But Jesus looked beyond

that, to the final restoration, when “the trumpet will sound, [and] the

dead will be raised imperishable”

(1 Cor. 15:52, NIV).

How crucial is the hope of the resurrection? What do we have

without it? What reasons do you have for trusting in God’s

promise to one day destroy, forever, death?

_____________________________________________________

FRIDAY

May 2

Further Study:

Examine the following statement. How does it

relate to the overall lesson for this week? Do you see areas of tension?

Or does it make the same general point in a different way? Here it is:

“The Gospels are filled with accounts of Jesus’ miracles, but it would

be a mistake to place our emphasis there. For one thing, Jesus did not

himself emphasize them; almost all of them were performed quietly,

apart from the crowd, and as demonstrations of the power of faith. We

get a better perspective on Jesus’ activities if we place the emphasis

where one of his disciples did. Once, in addressing a group, Peter

found it necessary to epitomize Jesus’ life, and said, ‘He went about

doing good.’ Moving easily and without affectation among ordinary

people and social misfits, healing them, counseling them, Jesus went

about doing good. He did so with such single-minded effectiveness,

that those who were with him constantly found their estimate of him

modulating to a new key. They found themselves thinking that if divine

goodness were to manifest itself in human form, this is how it would

behave.”—Huston Smith, The Illustrated World’s Religions, p. 210.

Discussion Questions:

● Ellen G. White said that “the great work of the gospel is not to

close with less manifestation of the power of God than marked its

opening.” She spoke of a vigorous, worldwide thrust as the end

approaches, and said that “miracles will be wrought, the sick will

be healed, and signs and wonders will follow the believers”

( The

Great Controversy, pp. 611, 612). How do you see this prophecy

coming to pass? How do you visualize your own participation in

it? What role does your local church have in all this? What things

can we do to prepare for this time?

● Suppose someone appeared who did many amazing miracles,

as did Jesus, miracles that testified to what was clearly super-

natural. How could, should, you respond?

● Bring to class your answer to Monday’s question about mod-

ern miracles, and discuss your answers and the reasons for them.

tor

INSIDE

Thrown Into the River: Part 1

by SUNIL BIKAS TRIPURA

I am from the hills of Bangladesh. From my childhood I was devoted to

several gods. I attended festivals, offered gifts to the gods to whom I

prayed, and went on pilgrimages, all to receive the blessings of the gods.

On one religious pilgrimage I was dismayed to find the priests asking

pilgrims for money to forgive their sins. I could not believe it when I heard

them say that the more a poor pilgrim gave, the more surely their sins

would be forgiven.

Can I buy forgiveness with money? I wondered. If so,

then the rich can be forgiven. But what about the poor?

I climbed the mountain to the holy place, but when I reached the top, I

found drunken priests and pilgrims. Some declared themselves gods in

their own right and asked other pilgrims for money to be forgiven.

I knew that these priests and pilgrims were violating the holy writings—

and on temple grounds! I thought about it and realized that one god I wor-

shiped had committed at least three of the five forbidden sins. How could

a human be expected to stay pure if a god cannot? I wondered who could

save me if not these gods.

I began to question my faith.

Is my god the true god? Or is there another

God, more powerful, more perfect, One who can overcome sin and take us

to heaven? As I pondered these questions, I determined to start searching

for the answers.

One day I met a man who said he is a Christian, a Seventh-day Adventist

Christian. When I asked him about sin and forgiveness, he told me that

everyone is a sinner, and that Jesus is the only Savior. Only Jesus lived a

perfect life, and only Jesus can save us from sin.

I asked the man for a Bible and started reading it. I compared Jesus with

my god and discovered that Jesus truly is the only righteous being, the true

Savior. I surrendered my life to Jesus, trusting Him to save me.

But my aunt and uncle, who were my guardians, were angry that I had

forsaken their gods. They forbade me to touch the food or to drink from

their cups, saying it would make them unfit for use. But even worse per-

secution was to follow.

(continued next week)

SUNIL BIKAS TRIPURA has completed his r

eligion de

ee in Bangladesh

Adventist Seminary

and College and is working among his tribal group in Bangladesh.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.

Web site: www.adventistmission.org

L ESSON

*May 3–9

The Challenge of His

Sayings

SABBATH AFTERNOON

Read for This Week’s Study:

Matt. 5:48; 18:21, 22;

19:3–12; Luke 12:32–34; John 19:25–27.

Memory Text:

“ ‘No one ever spoke the way this man does’ ”

(John 7:46, NIV).

ome of Jesus’ sayings present a whole host of values radically at

odds with what often is viewed as normal. We are, He says, to

turn the other cheek; that is, we are not to resist evil. Of course,

almost everyone assumes that evil should be resisted, often by every

means possible. And to love those who are our enemies? Are enemies

not to be hated? It is friends and families we are to love, right? Not

according to Jesus.

It gets even more confusing. According to Jesus, it is the outcasts,

the harlots, and others like them who will enter the kingdom of God

before so many of the so-called

righteous. How can that be?

Jesus says that the blessed ones are the ones who weep, who are

merciful, who are pure in heart. We thought the blessed ones were the

rich, the powerful, those who have good looks and plenty of friends,

right?

Yet, even those sayings were not the most challenging to come from

the lips of Jesus. This lesson examines a few of Jesus’ pronounce-

ments that fall into the category of

sayings, since they are not teach-

ings in the strict sense of the ter

What did Jesus mean by these

sayings? And how are we expected

to apply them to our lives today?

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, May 10.

SUNDAY

May 4

About Marriage and Abstinence

Some

of Jesus’ hardest sayings deal with the question of marriage

and divorce. Read the following passage. What things are clear?

What things are not so easy to understand? Even with what is not

clear, what is the essential message that Jesus is giving here?

Matt. 19:3–12

____________________________________________________________________

There is much to chew on in the Pharisees’ question. Note, for

example, the male-oriented nature of the question, “ ‘Is it lawful for a

man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?’ ”(vs. 3, NIV). Of

course, the answer is no, and Jesus makes that clear (vss. 4–6). But the

questioners’ real motive emerges as we come to verse 7: “ ‘Why then

. . . did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of

divorce and send her away?’ ” Going beyond Moses, Jesus tightens the

terms for a marital split, coming down hard on those men with a yen

for ditching wives. On one condition only, He says, marital infidelity.

Any other grounds would constitute adultery

(vss. 8, 9). Shocked, the

disciples jump into the discussion: “ ‘It is better not to marry’ ” (vs.

10, NIV), they state.

Their response provides the impetus for one of the most difficult

statements to come from the lips of Jesus.

Read

again Matthew 19:11, 12. Who are those that cannot accept

Jesus’ tough line?

Does Jesus mean to exempt them? Who are included in “ ‘only those

to whom it has been given’ ”

(vs. 11, NIV)? Are these a special group

of morally (sexually) gifted people? What are we to make of Jesus’

eunuch reference? How are the three categories of eunuch to be

explained, and how do they apply to us? Jesus’ most puzzling line

comes at the end: “ ‘The one who can accept this should accept it’ ”

(vs. 12, NIV). Is this a Divine concession for people too weak to com-

ply with the high standard He outlined? And if a concession, does it

apply to the whole discourse about divorce?

As is sometimes the case, there are things in the Bible that are

hard to understand (2 Pet. 3:16). Why is it so important not to

get hung up on those things,

ut r

ather to f

ocus on and li

ve out

what we do understand?

MONDAY

May 5

About Forgiveness (Matt. 18:21, 22)

Jesus, we saw in an earlier lesson, is the embodiment of forgiveness.

We return to the subject in this lesson, however, to grapple with the

issue as to whether Jesus’ statements about forgiveness (in the above

passage, for example) are as simple as we sometimes make them out

to be.

Reflect

on Matthew 18:21, 22. What kind of offenses does Jesus

have in mind here? How do we apply Jesus’ words in cases of

repeated sexual or physical abuse, such as within the home? Did

Jesus have very egregious offenses in mind, such as when someone

kills a pregnant woman, opens up her womb, and steals her unborn

baby (as happened in Melvern, Kansas, in December 2004)?

Could it be that Jesus, speaking to ordinary people about ordi-

nary offenses, mistakes, and hurts that we experience in our nor-

mal interaction with one another, gives a command that does not

envision the more complex and sinister cases of human criminal-

ity? What do you think?

Known in the media as Girl X, she came to a Chicago court in a

wheelchair. Raising her head and making eye movements to commu-

nicate, the 13-year-old testified “about the attack in 1997 that left her

severely disabled. She was the third witness in the trial of Patrick

Sykes, 29, who is accused of raping her, beating her and pouring roach

killer down her throat in the attack.”—Mike Robinson, Associated

Press,

Washington Post, March 24, 2001, p. A22.

Is Jesus asking the victims of heinous acts to forgive not only the

first occurrence but also the seventh? And is He saying that God will

never forgive those who find themselves unable to absolve the demons

in human flesh that commit them? The point here is not that we

should not forgive. Rather, it is whether we may press the gracious

counsel of the Lord too far when we apply it to the kind of ghastly,

mind-numbing atrocities listed above.

As you think about the questions above, do not forget Jesus’

words on the cross: “ ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know

what they are doing’ ”

(Luke 23:34, NIV). If Jesus is asking God

to forgive those who crucified Him (Who did this include? The

Roman soldier

s? Caiphas? Pilate? Her

od? The chief priests and

scribes?), should we not forgive everything? Bring your thoughts

to class on Sabbath.

TUESDAY

May 6

About Wealth and Giving (Luke 12:32–34)

To the rich young ruler who came to Him, Jesus said, “ ‘Sell every-

thing you have and give to the poor’ ” (Luke 18:22, NIV). Our expla-

nation of this radical command usually has been that Jesus’stipulation

was specific to this young man, based on a prophetic insight into the

ruler’s need. Here Jesus put His finger on the one big obstacle

between the ruler and salvation: money. But does He not give that

same directive to everyone?

In Luke 12:33 Jesus seems to apply to everyone with means the

same injunction He gave the rich young ruler: “Sell your possessions

and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear

out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted”

(NIV).

How

should we understand this saying? Was Jesus advocating a redis-

tribution of wealth for all Christians in all times and places? What

practical problems would arise if we literally carried out His injunc-

tion? Take any given community, in which all Christians have sold

all their property and given the proceeds to the poor, what now is

the economic status of those Christians? How do they support

themselves and their own families? And how do they now get the

means to carry forward the rest of Jesus’ mission—to take the

gospel to new frontiers, for example?

Three considerations may be helpful here. One is to note what actu-

ally happened during the course of Jesus’ own ministry: His little

group seemed to have had funds on hand—Judas kept them (John

12:6, 13:29). A second is to take a careful look at what happened in

the early church, among those Christians closest to the life setting of

Jesus’ statement. (In Acts 4:32–37 we witness what appeared to be an

orderly, voluntary process as they sought to follow Jesus’ injunction.)

A third consideration is to examine what happened in the early church

beyond the book of Acts (in the letters of Paul, John, Peter, etc., we see

no wholesale selling of property).

When you take all these things, as well as the whole Bible (which

does not condemn wealth, per se), into consideration, what do

you think was Christ’s point? How does Luke 12:34 catch the

essence of His message?

_____________________________________________________

WEDNESDAY

May 7

About Perfection (Matt. 5:48)

For many people, one of Jesus’ most puzzling statements comes in

the middle of the Sermon on the Mount: “ ‘Be perfect, therefore, as

your heavenly Father is perfect’ ”

(Matt. 5:48, NIV). Across the cen-

turies, conscientious Christians have struggled to reach the standard to

which they thought Jesus Christ was pointing, a state of complete vic-

tory over the world, the flesh, and the devil. Some have flagellated and

beaten themselves; some have gone on pilgrimages; others have

sought it through stringent keeping of the law. The goal is altogether

worthy in every case. But is that what Jesus was calling for in

Matthew 5?

Compare

the following pairs of scriptures. Notice how they inform

and balance each other:

Matt. 10:34–39 and Luke 14:26, 27

____________________________________________________________________

Matt. 7:7–11 and Luke 11:9–13

____________________________________________________________________

Matt. 5:48 and Luke 6:32–36

____________________________________________________________________

The seemingly harsh language of Jesus in Luke 14 is mollified by

its parallel in Matthew 10, which gives us, we think, a better grasp of

what Jesus was trying to say. And whereas the Matthew 7 passage on

prayer has Jesus promising us, upon the asking of “good gifts” (vs. 11,

RSV; “good things,” KJV; which can inadvertently focus the mind on

the material), Luke has Jesus pledging, instead, “the Holy Spirit”

(Luke 11:13, NIV)—a considerable shift in perspective.

The same kind of synthesis takes place in respect to the final pair of

texts. Where Matthew has Jesus saying, “ ‘Be ye therefore perfect,’ ”

(Matt. 5:48), Luke reports His words as, “ ‘Be ye therefore merciful’ ”

(Luke 6:36), which, according to both contexts, comes closer to what

Jesus meant. In Luke the context speaks about loving our enemies,

and lending without expecting anything back. Doing things like that,

Jesus says, makes us “ ‘sons of the Most High, because he is kind to

the ungrateful and wicked’ ” (vs. 35, NIV). Then follows immediately

the statement, “ ‘Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful’ ” (vs. 36,

NIV). In Matthew the situation is identical, the verse on being perfect

preceded by talk of lo

ve to enemies, prayer for those who mistreat us,

and about God sending rain equally on the righteous and the wicked.

Jesus thus wanted to encourage us to be just like our heavenly Father,

who is kind to all and shows no partiality. That is what

perf

ect

in this

context means. It is a high order, to be sure, but what higher ideal can

a Christian strive for?

THURSDAY

May 8

About Family (John 19:25–27)

A young woman joined David Koresh’s ill-fated group back in the

1990s and was at the group’s Waco, Texas, compound when her

mother passed away in Canada. As she prepared to leave for the

funeral, the charismatic guru intercepted her plans. No need, he said,

to expend time and funds for such mundane purposes; there are more

important things to do on the compound. She never went.

Read

the following sayings of Jesus: Matt. 10:34–37, 12:46–50, Luke

9:59–62, 12:49–53, 14:26. How would you answer the charge that

they tend to give aid and comfort to charismatics like Koresh (and

others) who denigrate natural family ties and loyalties?

____________________________________________________________________

“This reconfiguration of f

amily values—driving a wedge between

earthly and heavenly, . . . becomes a major theme in Luke’s gospel.

. . . In addition to statements embracing all who keep God’s word as

true kinfolk (8:19–21; 11:27, 28), . . . Luke’s Jesus lays down the

shocking mandate to ‘hate father and mother’—even to the point of

leaving a dead father to bury himself!—as a condition for discipleship

(9:57–62; 14:25).”—F. Scott Spencer,

What Did Jesus Do? (Harrisburg,

Pa.: Trinity Press International, 2003), p. 35.

Jesus’ statements sound harsh to the modern ear, to be sure. But are

they really so, when you understand what they mean? In the case of

letting “the dead bury their own dead”

(Luke 9:60, NIV) for example,

had the father of the potential disciple actually died? Or was that per-

son saying, in effect, “I will follow you after my father dies, and I have

secured all the property”? And how should we understand Jesus’state-

ment in Luke 14:26 that no one can be His disciple who “ ‘does not

hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sis-

ters—yes, even his own life’ ”

(NIV)? As pointed out in yesterday’s

lesson, the Matthew parallel throws light on Jesus’ meaning here, by

Jesus talking in the Matthew text about those who love father and

mother and wife, etc., more than Him

(see Matt. 10:37). “In the Bible,

‘to hate,’ often should be understood simply as . . . ‘to love less.’ ”—

The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 5, p. 811. The idea Jesus was trying

to get across was the importance of putting God first.

Oftentimes our familial bonds ar

e the str

ong

est earthly bonds

that we know, and rightly so. Why, though, must God always

come first, even before family, if need be?

FRIDAY

May 9

Further Study:

No question, some of Jesus’ sayings are hard to

understand, especially if taken in isolation. When, however, we view

them in context, particularly with other corrective statements that bal-

ance them out, many of them become much easier to understand. Even

then it becomes clear that following Jesus cannot be a halfway thing.

Either we give ourselves to Him completely, regardless of the cost, or

we do not give ourselves to Him at all.

“Celibacy is not the ordinary, normal state, and it is a deception of

the devil that, of itself, it can lead to a superior state of holiness than

would otherwise be possible. Among the Jews celibacy was frowned

upon or pitied, and it was practiced only by extreme ascetic groups

such as the Essenes. . . . The Scripture record states specifically that

Peter was married, and probably the other disciples were as well. . . .

Jesus never recommended celibacy, either for Christians as a whole or

for Christian leaders. It is not natural, and does not contribute to the

development of a symmetrical character in the way that normal mar-

ried life can.

“The words of our Lord [in Matt. 19:12], if understood literally,

would run counter to the whole tenor of Scripture. The idea of bodily

mutilation is abhorrent. It seems proper to see this statement as anal-

ogous to Christ’s declaration in Matthew 5:30” (about cutting off an

offending limb).—

The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 5, pp. 455, 456.

Discussion Questions:

● The above statement on celibacy seems to have a particular

religious culture in mind. But in what ways might it, uninten-

tionally, bring discouragement to ordinary Christians who are

single or widowed, or who for other reasons find it appropriate

to be celibate? In what ways can we affirm people who have

made that choice?

● Bring your answers to Monday’s final question to class, and

discuss the question of whether forgiveness does or should have

limits.

● It is one thing to spout scriptures about how God has to come

first, even before family; it is another, of course, to actually exer-

cise the faith to do that. In most churches around the world, there

probably will be people who have been alienated greatly by their

families because of their faith. What about your own church? Is

there anyone ther

e w

ho has lost famil

y because of their adher

ence to Jesus? If so, how can you, as a church family, help make

up the difference?

tor

INSIDE

Thrown Into the River: Part 2

by SUNIL BIKAS TRIPURA

As a teen I gave up my belief in many gods and became a Christian,

mostly by reading the Bible. But my decision angered many people. Friends

forsook me, and the girl I hoped to marry left me to marry another. And

when my grandfather died, the villagers refused to let me attend his funeral

ceremony. Instead they grabbed me and threw me into the nearby river.

I had no Christian friends, no one to comfort or encourage me. I cried to

Jesus, “Are You the true God? If so, where are You? I am persecuted. Have

You no power to help me?” But I felt no answer to my prayer, so I stopped

reading the Bible. I looked elsewhere for a god I could believe in, but other

religions seemed full of confusion. Desperate, I picked up the Bible again

and opened it at random. It opened to the book of Job. There I found

courage.

I again met the man who had given me the Bible. I told him of my prob-

lem, and he encouraged me to be faithful. With his help I recommitted my

life to God.

I wanted to continue my studies at the Adventist college in Bangladesh,

but without my family’s support it seemed impossible. I searched for work,

but the only job I could find was at a cigarette factory. I had only 500

taka

(about U.S. $8). It would not pay for even a week of school. Once more, dis-

couragement set in.

I stopped at the church’s headquarters and received encouragement not to

give up on my dream to study. Encouraged, I asked God for 1,000

taka (U.S.

$16) from my family, those who had turned from me when I became a

Christian. That would be enough to at least enroll in school. I told my uncles

about my need, and they gave me almost 3,000

taka, more than I had asked

God for.

I enrolled in the school and supported myself by selling books. I want to

become a pastor and work among my tribal people, only a few of whom are

Christians. I have begun working among my people, and I see them listen-

ing and accepting God’s message of love. So far 35 people attend the little

Sabbath School in my village and some nearby villages. They have no

church in which to worship, so my goal is to provide a simple house of wor-

ship for them.

God has called me to this task, and I will not turn back. I have seen how

God has led me in the past, so I have confidence He will provide for me as

I follow His leading. Your mission offerings help me in my work of leading

people who have never heard the name of Jesus to the foot of the cross.

SUNIL BIKAS TRIPURA has completed his r

eligion de

ee in Bangladesh

Adventist Seminary

and College and is working among his tribal group in Bangladesh.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.

Web site: www.adventistmission.org

We’re all

God’s

children.

Some of

us just

don’t

know

Him yet.

Your mission

offerings help to

Tell the World.

www.AdventistMission.org

L ESSON

*May 10–16

The Puzzle of His

Conduct

SABBATH AFTERNOON

Read for This W

eek’s Study:

Matt. 4:12, 13; 8:28–32;

11:18, 19; 21:12, 13; Luke 2:41–51; 5:32; 1 Cor. 1:26–28.

Memory Text:

“The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and

they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collec-

tors and “sinners” ’ ”

(Matthew 11:19, NIV).

ast week’s lesson focused on sayings of Jesus that leave con-

temporary people scratching their heads. This week’s lesson

probes similar issues, but in respect to His conduct.

One of our problems with Jesus is our perennial temptation to re-

create Him in our own image. The revolutionary makes Him out to be

one of them; social conservatives believe they have Him in their cor-

ner. To an extent, that is unavoidable. After all, our own culture and

situation form the matrix through which we both consciously and even

unconsciously view reality. But to be conscious of this fact offers

some hope that we can begin, at least in some limited way, to tran-

scend it, and attempt as objective an approach as we can to the Jesus

we find in the Gospels.

Once we do that, we discover that it is not easy to pigeon-hole Him,

not easy to place Him in a tidy little package with the word

solved on

top. Instead, we find ourselves genuinely puzzled by aspects of His

conduct, wondering, Does He expect us to do that, and in the same

way?

This week w

e will look at some of the more puzzling actions of

Jesus in order to lear

n w

hat we can apply and, perhaps, not apply to

our own lives.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, May 17.

SUNDAY

May 11

Neglecting Parents?

As stated earlier, the Gospels are almost totally silent on the first 30

years or so of Jesus’ life. Though not much is given, there is one

account of this time frame that gives us pause.

Read

Luke 2:41–51. At first sight, what impression does the passage

leave about Jesus’ regard for His parents? On the other hand,

what else might have been going on here? What hint could be

found in verse 47?

____________________________________________________________________

The incident, on the face of it, gives the impression of an irrespon-

sible lad, utterly uncaring about the pain and anxiety of his parents.

What parents would not be terribly angry at such apparently callous

disregard for their convenience and the rules of their home?

This is one of those events that show the limits of using Jesus’ con-

duct as a model in every case. What is happening here, it would seem,

is that Jesus’ Messiahship has already begun to shine through at the

tender age of 12. He is becoming conscious of an allegiance to a

Power infinitely higher than His parents, however much He respected

them. The brevity of Luke’s account leaves a dozen questions unan-

swered, such as Who fed and housed the lad those three days? Did the

priests have any concern to find His parents?

Read

Jesus’ response to His parents. What was He telling them, at

least indirectly?

“But,” Luke reports, “they did not understand what he was saying to

them” (Luke 2:50, NIV). Jesus would return home with them and, as a

child, be subject to them

(vs. 51); but He had taken pains to establish

the position of a higher loyalty. Nor is there any indication that He

ever apologized for the terrible inconvenience He had caused His anx-

ious parents.

Jesus’ entire life was guided by the supremacy of God and God’s

kingdom, even at the cost of being misunderstood. In what ways

might your loyalty to God be misunderstood by others? If this

has ever happened to y

ou, what did you learn that could, per-

haps, help someone else going through a similar experience?

MONDAY

May 12

Displaying Anger?

When Jesus descended the Mount of Transfiguration, a man emerged

from a crowd at the base with a request that Jesus heal His son. He had

taken the boy to the disciples, the man explained, but they had been

unable to cure him. Jesus’response, as it comes through in translation,

gives the impression of being peeved by the request. “ ‘O unbelieving

and perverse generation,’ ” He replied, “ ‘. . . how long shall I put up

with you? Bring the boy here to me’ ”

(Matt. 17:17, NIV). At the very

least, such words seem uncharacteristic of the One we have come to

know as the “gentle Jesus, meek and mild.” How might we explain

Jesus’ tone here? It is a difficult call. The Gospels mention other occa-

sions when Jesus certainly appeared angry, as well.

How

do you understand the following passages? (Matt. 21:12, 13;

Mark 3:1–5).

____________________________________________________________________

Many Christians consider that the way for us to proceed with

choices in our complex, contemporary world is to ask, What would

Jesus do? It sounds simple enough, until one asks the logical prelimi-

nary question, What did Jesus do? Here we discover that the answers

are not always as simple as we may think. What, for example, are the

implications of the above passages for our own conduct today?

“Presuming that what Jesus would do today has some correlation with

what he actually did then—in first-century Roman Palestine . . . —how

in the world might a contemporary Christian go about replicating and

applying these bizarre incidents of tree-cursing and temple-disrupting?

If our favorite grocery store happens not to stock a particular fruit we are

craving—because it’s out of season!—do we proceed, with Jesus’ bless-

ing, to curse the fruit bin, the produce manager, and everything else in

sight? And if the preacher goes on too much about money one Sunday or

if we are just generally miffed at various church personnel and programs,

do we bust in during a worship service and start upending pews, pulpits,

altars—anything not nailed do

wn—and bouncing ushers from the prem-

ises?”—F. Scott Spencer,

What Did Jesus Do? p. ix.

What principles should we bring to bear upon such questions?

Where does spiritual common sense come in? Jesus came as the

Messiah, the Sa

vior of humanity

w do w

e distinguish w

hat

He did strictly in that role from that which He intends for us to

follow?

TUESDAY

May 13

Destroying Personal Property?

An underlying concern of this week’s lesson centers on the way we

use Jesus as our model. How straightforward is the goal of “following

His example”? And what we are noticing is that it is a matter that calls

for the most careful thought and discrimination. There are certainly

cases—the majority, in fact—sin which we detect a clear, ethical

example to follow; in others the principle is not very clear. Two cases:

Read

Matthew 8:28–32 (compare Mark 5:1–20, Luke 8:26–39) and

Matthew 21:18, 19 (compare Mark 11:12–14, 20, 21). Why do you

think Jesus allowed the demons to enter the herd of swine? Would

He have done the same thing if the animals had been sheep? Where

is the sympathy in Jesus’ action here? Was there a concern on His

part that, regardless of His own dietary strictures, the herd, never-

theless, represented the livelihood of one or more families in the

town? How would the idea of compensation fit into this picture?

“If these swine were owned by Gentiles, we should be left without

a real explanation for their destruction. To say that the devils were

ordered merely to leave the men, and that their entering the swine was

their own act, contradicts their request to Jesus and the plain state-

ments of Mark and of Luke that Jesus gave them permission.”—R. C.

H. Lenski,

The Interpretation of St. Matthew’s Gospel (Minneapolis,

Minn.: Augsburg Publishing House, 1943), p. 353. Another Bible

scholar sees in Jesus’ action “a powerful protest.” “The name ‘Legion’

and the pig mascot,” he says, “both signify Roman military occupa-

tion.” Thus Jesus’ intention was to “protest against oppressive Roman

possession of Israel.”—F. Scott Spencer,

What Did Jesus Do? p. 101.

Ellen G. White says that “it was in mercy to the owners of the

swine that this loss had been permitted to come upon them.

They were absorbed in earthly things, and cared not for the

great interests of spiritual life. Jesus desired to break the spell

of selfish indifference, that they might accept His grace.”—

The

Desire of Ages, p. 338. While these comments might help us to

understand certain calamities that come upon us personally,

how do you see it setting any precedence in regard to our own

action? Or is this one of those actions pertaining to Jesus’ role

as Messiah-Prophet, and not intended as an example for us to

follow, as such? How would you make the case that the same is

true in regard to the cursing of the fig tree (which probably had

a personal owner)?

WEDNESDAY

May 14

Neglecting the Persecuted?

In His most dramatic depiction of the last judgment, Jesus tells about

when He will divide the nations gathered before Him into two groups,

the sheep and the goats. To the sheep He says, among other things, “ ‘I

was in prison and you came to visit me’ ”

(Matt. 25:36, NIV).

Read

the following texts in the light of Jesus’ judgment pronounce-

ment. Give your immediate impression on how you think the text

relates to His prison reference in the judgment.

Matt. 4:12, 13

____________________________________________________________________

Matt. 11:2, 3

____________________________________________________________________

Matt. 14:1–13

____________________________________________________________________

How is Jesus’ conduct during the imprisonment of John to be

explained? Upon first hearing of John’s incarceration, He returns to

Galilee (Matt. 4:12). And all the evidence suggests that John did not

receive a visit from his illustrious contemporary while in the dungeon,

a clear implication of Matthew 11:2, 3. According to the passage, John

dispatches his disciples to Jesus with a question; that being, appar-

ently, the only means of contact available to him. Following the visit

of John’s people, Jesus launches into high praise for the embattled

prophet but does not visit him.

One of the most persistent questions we face as human beings cen-

ters around the issue of suffering: Where is God when we hurt? In the

experience of John, we have a partial answer, in terms of Jesus’ con-

duct. Though He was God in human flesh, with power to act, Jesus

does not intervene to rescue the one who had helped prepare the

ground for His own ministry. And following John’s murder, all we get

from Jesus (who, we suspect, felt it keenly) is silence. Nor is it likely

that He or His disciples attended John’s funeral.

How

would you explain Jesus’ conduct during this dark time for

John? What were the probable extenuating circumstances that

might have played a role in His decision? (See The SDA Bible Com-

mentary, vol. 5, p. 316, which suggests that the authorities were

attempting to silence both John and Jesus.)

And how can His beha

vior during the entir

e episode with the

Baptist help us understand the silence of God in our own times

of trouble?

THURSDAY

May 15

Hanging Out With Undesirables

Most of us have a doctored image of Jesus. And however often we

hear that He associated with those whom His own society considered

unacceptable, our imagination either holds back from going all the

way or goes too far. Often, rather than quietly coming to grips with

what that aspect of Jesus’ life should mean for us today on a personal

basis, we use His behavior to beat one another on the head, for being

too exclusive, too conservative, in regard to the more seedy elements

of society. One suspects, however, that a careful examination of Jesus’

relations with the

undesirables of His day would leave most (if not all)

of us feeling at least a tad uncomfortable.

Examine

the following passages. What message can we take from

them? Matt. 9:10–13; 11:18, 19; Luke 5:32; 1 Cor. 1:26–28.

____________________________________________________________________

If we apply these passages to our times, our imagination should see

Jesus sitting down with people of questionable morals in settings of

deepest fellowship (as was mealtime in the ancient world). Eating and

drinking are taking place; loud and raucous music is heard; practicing

prostitutes lurk in the shadows. That is the setting, and that is precisely

where Jesus went.

Interestingly, it is from Jesus Himself that we learn about the most

pejorative labels His enemies promulgated about Him: that He was “a

glutton and a drunkard”

(Matt. 11:19, Luke 7:34, NIV). “These slurs

would never work against a John the Baptist or a Gandhi, but for one

who spends as much time as Jesus does frequenting and talking about

dinner parties and banquets, they make a point, even if exagger-

ated.”—F. Scott Spencer,

What Did Jesus Do? p. 90. However exag-

gerated, it was nothing short of extraordinary for the Savior of the

world to be charged with inebriation and overeating.

What can we learn from these texts that we can apply to our

own lives? What should we not apply? As you answer, think

about what purpose Jesus had for being with these people. How

does that answer help us understand what practical principles

we can take away?

FRIDAY

May 16

Further Study:

“Jesus saw in every soul one to whom must be

given the call to His kingdom. He reached the hearts of the people by

going among them as one who desired their good. He sought them in

the public streets, in private houses, on the boats, in the synagogue, by

the shores of the lake, and at the marriage feast. He met them at their

daily vocations, and manifested an interest in their secular affairs. He

carried His instruction into the household, bringing families in their

own homes under the influence of His divine presence. His strong per-

sonal sympathy helped to win hearts.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of

Ages, p. 151.

“Christ’s method alone will give true success in reaching the peo-

ple. The Saviour mingled with [people] as one who desired their good.

He showed His sympathy for them, ministered to their needs, and won

their confidence. Then He bade them, ‘Follow Me.’ ”—Ellen G. White,

The Ministry of Healing, p. 143.

Discussion Questions:

● What is righteous anger? When is it legitimate, and when is it

not? Take your thoughts to class for discussion.

● How is Jesus’ relationship with the undesirables of society a

guide for us? Under what conditions might our association with

sinners become a peril to our own souls? In all His social con-

tacts, Jesus seemed to be in charge. What should that say to us in

our own attempts to penetrate the more questionable areas of

society?

● To what extent is Jesus’ conduct a model for us today? To what

extent is it not? What are other examples of His conduct here

that might be problematic for us to follow?

● Think more about this idea of being misunderstood by others

as we seek to follow God’s will. Though we see examples of this,

such as in Jesus’ early life, why must we be careful? That is, some

people have done some very damaging things to themselves and

to others, all because they believed that God told them to. How

do we know for sure that God is calling us to do certain things

that might cause us to be misunderstood? Why should we be

open to the counsel of others before we do things that we are con-

vinced that God told us to do? At the same time, how can we be

careful not to impede someone who is being led by God in ways

that might seem str

ang

e to us?

tor

INSIDE

Daniel’s New Song

by DANIEL NEWMANN

I was born in Brazil, but my parents took me to America when I was still

a baby. I was a good kid, but in junior high things changed. I got interested

in punk rock music, and it changed my life. I wore punk-style clothes and

hung out with punk friends. I started drinking and smoking marijuana with

them, and soon I was part of their culture.

When my mom realized what I was involved in, she freaked out. She

had sent me to a good school so I would make good friends, and suddenly

I was going the wrong way. Although my mom had some weird religious

ideas, she started telling me how much God loves me and how Jesus died

for me. Because of her prayers and encouragement I stopped smoking and

drinking.

But I still loved punk music, and it drew me into a culture that spelled

trouble. Mom tried to show me the dangers hidden in the lyrics of my

music, but I would not listen.

My punk friends never made fun of me when I refused to join them in

drinking or smoking. However, in time I realized that there was no future

in the gang, and I began to pull away. But when the gang realized that I

wanted to leave, they told me that if I left they would kill me. I was afraid,

for they had killed another boy who had betrayed the gang.

I told my parents that my life was in danger. My mom understood and

suggested that I go to Brazil. I had spent summers there, so I agreed. She

found a Christian school on the Internet and enrolled me.

I arrived at school—an Adventist boarding school—and liked it imme-

diately. Everyone was friendly. And the music I heard there touched my

heart. One Sabbath as the choir sang, I felt God speaking to me through

the music. I knew that I was where God wanted me to be. I could relate to

the speaker, who told how God had rescued him from a terrible life. By

the end of the service I knew that I wanted to

be a Christian. I began studying the Bible,

and I shared with my mother what I was

learning.

Mom had enrolled me in this school to save

my life, but God used this school to save my

soul. I want my mom to believe in God the

way I am learning to believe. I once loved

punk music, but God has given me a new

song, a song I lo

e to sing.

DANIEL NEWMANN [left] is a student at an Adventist

academ

y in eastern Br

azil.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.

Web site: www.adventistmission.org

L ESSON

*May 17–23

The Intensity of His Walk

SABBATH AFTERNOON

Read for This W

eek’s Study:

Matt. 4:4, Luke 2:40,

6:12, John 4:34, John 17, 1 John 2:6.

Memor

y Text:

“Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus

did”

(1 John 2:6, NIV).

dventists are a peace-loving people. We feel elated when the

church or its members get positive press, when everybody

thinks we are good. But how might we react if we woke up one

day to find huge headlines in the media branding us as losers, dis-

rupters, or insurrectionists? Would our sense of assurance and confi-

dence in God be strong enough to sustain us? We admire Jesus after the

fact; but do we have any idea what it meant for Him to be vilified and

demonized by the highest civic and ecclesiastical powers of His day?

In the end we see Him manhandled by Roman soldiers: “They put

a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set

it on him. And they began to call out to him, ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’

Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on

him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. . . . Then they

led him out to crucify him”

(Mark 15:17–20, NIV).

What prepares a person to endure such physical and psychological

abuse without cracking? How does a person remain steadfast and

calm when the whole world turns against them—with not a shred of

visible human support in sight? For Jesus, the answer lay in His com-

munion with God, in the intensity of His walk with Him—which

forms the subject of this week’s lesson.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, May 24.

SUNDAY

May 18

The Early Years (Luke 2:40)

As we have stressed already, we know very little about Christ’s early

years. We hear about His birth and very early years, including the visit

to the temple at age 12

(see Luke 2). But that is all, until His baptism

by John at the start of His public ministry, when He was “about thirty”

(NIV; see Luke 3:21–23).

Nevertheless, it is possible to look at His life, as we know it, and

draw certain reasonable conclusions in respect to the spiritual founda-

tion that gave it support. If we assume from our own experience that

the stability and strength we see in Jesus during His public ministry

did not materialize overnight nor arise from shallowness and superfi-

ciality, then we are bound to conclude, again from our own experi-

ence, that they sprang from an intense walk with God.

Read

again the story of Jesus at the temple (Luke 2:39–52). What

things are found there that help us understand the spiritual foun-

dation upon which the young Jesus grew? Also, what role did His

parents play in His growth?

____________________________________________________________________

Incredibly, these passages (apart from the birth narratives) are all

we have on the first 30 years of Jesus’ life. Furthermore, biblical

scholars estimate that the vast majority of the Gospel materials center

on the final week of Jesus’ life, making them (as has often been said)

“Passion narratives,” not biographies, as such. They were produced,

evidently, for the well-defined purpose of shining the spotlight on the

two critical events of the Christian faith: the mystery of Jesus’ birth

(the Incarnation) and the significance of His death and resurrection.

Between these two events we see His unselfish life of service and sac-

rifice. And we correctly may assume that the focus and dedication we

see in His public ministry represent the flowering of a relationship

with God that was consistent, deeply personal, and intense.

What principles can we take from this story that we, in our own

context, can apply to ourselves and our own spiritual life?

MONDAY

May 19

At the Start of His Ministry (Matt. 4:4)

Following His baptism, Jesus goes out into the Judean desert for 40

days to pray, to reflect upon His mission. Perhaps none of us studying

this lesson has had any personal knowledge of what that means. Here

we come face-to-face with an intensity we can hardly grasp, a spiritual

concentration much beyond our usual experience, a pursuit of intimate

closeness with God that leaves our mouths wide open.

But the explicit reason for this wilderness foray was for testing

(Matt. 4:1; cf. Luke 4:2), and the tempter was on hand to take advan-

tage of the opportunity. Using the Savior’s extreme hunger as his tool,

he desperately tried to drive a wedge between Jesus and His Father, to

wrench Jesus’ firm grasp on God, to break the intensity of His walk

with Him, to intrude upon the intimate closeness.

How

does Jesus’ response, as revealed in the following texts, show the

intensity of His walk with God? What can we learn from this that

we can apply to ourselves? (Matt. 4:3–10, Luke 4:3–12).

____________________________________________________________________

To understand what is going on here, we need to keep in mind

Jesus’ unique status in the whole scheme of salvation. He was the

spotless Son of God. Coming into the world in human nature, He had

to live completely above the sinful sphere, not just for a day, but for

His entire time with us. He was to struggle as we do, to be tempted as

we are, yet He had to remain immaculate. We might compare it to

going through 33 years with your computer, writing articles, doing

homework, answering letters, and never making a single mistake,

never needing to use the delete key or the undo feature; or to going

through a course in algebra or physics, and getting every problem

right; or to playing the piano for 33 years without ever hitting a wrong

note.

That was Jesus’ lot. He came, not just to set an example in selfless

living, but to die as the sinless One, and thereby bring salvation to the

planet. Hence His total concentration, the utter intensity of His walk

with God; nothing could be taken for granted, nothing left to chance.

A single misstep, and the game was over.

Imagine what it must have been to have never sinned, not even

in thought, during His w

hole life

. That is what righteousness is

all about. Dwell on what you owe to Jesus, who offers you what

you could never attain yourself.

TUESDAY

May 20

In His Life of Prayer (Luke 6:12)

Jesus lived for prayer. His public ministry began with an extended

period of special prayer and communion (as we saw yesterday), and

the record indicates that He returned from the experience super-

charged with living power

(see Luke 4:14). It would have been un-

natural for Him to go a single moment without lifting up His soul to

God, without experiencing that living connection between Himself

and Heaven. And what we find is that although His was a life of con-

tinuous communion with His Father, before every major event or

development He took time for special supplication.

How

do the following passages demonstrate Jesus’ reliance upon God

for guidance, direction, and strength during moments of high

importance, stress, or danger? In each case, note the special event

in question:

Matt. 14:23 (compare vss. 24–33)

____________________________________________________________________

Luke 6:12 (compare vss. 13–16)

____________________________________________________________________

John 17 (compare 18:1–3)

____________________________________________________________________

Mark 1:35 seems to be describing not just one instance, but rather

a pattern, when it speaks about Jesus rising “a long while before day-

light” (NKJV) and going out to “a solitary place” (NKJV) for prayer.

He began each day with God. But times of special need increased the

tempo. Luke 6:12 informs us that Jesus spent the entire night in prayer

on a mountainside immediately preceding the selection of the Twelve

Apostles, apparently from among a larger group of followers

(see

Luke 6:13). Before His jaw-dropping walk on the lake, He had taken

time out for a period of intense communication with His Father. And

during the Passion Week, as He faced the Cross, Jesus offered an

intense supplicatory prayer for His immediate disciples and for His

people to the end of time.

Take another look at Jesus’ great prayer in John 17. What ele-

ments of a deeply personal walk with God do you find there?

What events drive you to your knees? What has been your expe-

rience with the po

wer of prayer to sustain you? How might you

improve your prayer life?

WEDNESDAY

May 21

Intensity for Mission (John 4:34)

For American poet Robert Frost in “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy

Evening,” the woods were “lovely, dark and deep/ But I have promises

to keep/ And miles to go before I sleep.”

Jesus lived with the constant awareness of the darkness in the “woods”

around Him, always deep, but never lovely. Like the poet, He con-

stantly was aware of having miles to go before He slept, so much to

do in so little time. “I must work the works of Him who sent Me while

it is day,” He said, “the night is coming when no one can work”

(John

9:4, NKJV). We see this mission intensity in His encounter with the

woman of Samaria. Suddenly, in the presence of this needy soul, He for-

gets all hunger and all thirst, totally consumed with the mission at hand.

Meanwhile, the woman, entering into the excitement of the

encounter, abandons her water jar and rushes to the village to spread

the news of the most focused character she has ever met. The disciples

return to find Jesus silent and pensive, praying for the success of this

brand-new contact.

When

the disciples told Jesus to eat, what did He answer them? (John

4:32–34). How should we understand those words? What message

can we take from them for ourselves?

What

do the following passages say about the intensity of Jesus’ pas-

sion for His mission? John 9:1–12, 35–39; 12:27–36.

____________________________________________________________________

Jesus’ sentiments in that last passage are pregnant with meaning.

They came following a request by certain visiting Greeks to meet Him

(John 12:20–22), a request that opened up before Him the possibility

of personally taking the message of the kingdom beyond His native

Palestine to the far corners of the earth. But He knew that to do so

would run counter to the most vital aspect of His total mission, to give

His life as a ransom for the nations. Hence, He follows with those

powerful words about a kernel of wheat falling into the ground

(vs.

24), symbolic not just of His own sacrifice but of the principle that all

who follow Him must have a full commitment to the will of God,

regardless of whatever the personal cost might be.

What has been y

our o

wn per

sonal experience with what it costs

to follow Jesus? Why is the cost cheap enough, no matter how

expensive it turns out to be?

THURSDAY

May 22

Our Own Walk With God (1 John 2:6)

Read

prayerfully the above text. What is the principle there for us to

follow? Realizing, as we have in previous lessons, that we cannot

(and should not) do everything that Christ did, how do we, never-

theless, make this text real in our own lives? In what ways are we

to walk as Jesus walked?

____________________________________________________________________

The idea of walking with God has its roots in hoary antiquity.

Perhaps the first explicit biblical reference to the idea comes in

Genesis 5:22, 24. Verse 24 says, “Enoch walked with God; then he

was no more, because God took him away”(NIV). The Hebrew word

for walked there appears in a form that implies a kind of continual,

ongoing walk, something that happened all the time. Whatever his

faults and struggles, Enoch kept a consistent walk with his Lord.

We, as Christians, have the opportunity to do the same. However, it

is so easy to let other things get in the way of that walk.

Wherever

you live, whatever your culture, what are the things that

so easily can hinder your walk with God? Too much leisure time?

Too m

uch distraction? Too much to do? Too much work in order

to just survive? Once you identify these concerns, what practical

steps can you take to try to prevent these things from hurting you

spiritually?

____________________________________________________________________

Read what Jesus said in Matthew 13:22. What is He saying there

that, in many w

ays, is the essence of what we are talking about today?

Thus, it is clear that none of these things can really be a valid excuse

for losing our w

, because the Lord already has foreseen them. How

crucial then that we, to the best of our God-given ability, make the

daily choices, as Jesus did, to keep our walk with the Lord intense and

ongoing. Why should we give the tempter anything at all to hold on to,

and thus turn us away from Jesus?

FRIDAY

May 23

Further Study:

“It would be well for us to spend a thoughtful hour

each day in contemplation of the life of Christ. We should take it point

by point, and let the imagination grasp each scene, especially the clos-

ing ones. As we thus dwell upon His great sacrifice for us, our confi-

dence in Him will be more constant, our love will be quickened, and

we shall be more deeply imbued with His spirit.”—Ellen G. White,

The Desire of Ages, p. 83.

“In every possible way Satan sought to prevent Jesus from develop-

ing a perfect childhood, a faultless manhood, a holy ministry, and an

unblemished sacrifice. But he was defeated. He could not lead Jesus

into sin. He could not discourage Him, or drive Him from the work He

had come to this earth to do. From the desert to Calvary the storm of

Satan’s wrath beat upon Him, but the more merciless it fell, the more

firmly did the Son of God cling to the hand of His Father, and press

on in the bloodstained path.”—Ellen G. White Comments, The SDA

Bible Commentary, vol. 5, p. 1130.

Discussion Questions:

● The grudging compliments paid to Jesus in Matthew 22:15, 16

speak of Him as a person of integrity and truth, as unswayed by

people’s office or power. What would people say about you?

Could they offer you a similar kind of compliment? What about

on a larger level, the level of your local church? Is it as willing to

help the lower stratum of society as it is to try to impress the

higher-ups? What does your answer tell you about changes that

need to be made, if any?

● As a class, go over what you wrote down in Thursday’s lesson

regarding the things that can hamper your walk with the Lord.

Compare notes with other class members. What did you list in

common? What were the differences? Even more important, how

can you work together to help each other get past these chal-

lenges? What practical help can you give each other?

● In Matthew, Jesus frequently is mentioned as spending time

on mountains and teaching on mountainsides. Finally, He is

transfigured on a mountain

(Matt. 17:1–9). This association with

higher ground is meant, perhaps, to signify the daily closeness

Jesus experienced with the higher realms of reality. What are the

ways that we, as a church, can work together to reach, in a sense,

the upper regions, even while intensely engaged in the valley

below?

tor

INSIDE

The Drunkard and the Tailor

by FULGÊNCIO CHALUFOIA

I was a drunkard, and my drinking robbed me of everything. But a hum-

ble tailor helped me find my way back from the edge of hell.

I live in Mozambique. I kept my drinking a secret until my wife and I

were married. I hoped to stop drinking, but I was powerless to stop. The

harder I tried to stop, the worse my drinking became. My wife threatened

to leave me if I did not get help.

I went to a witch doctor, but he could not help me conquer my addiction.

Sometimes I was so drunk I beat my wife. Finally she left me.

Desperate to stop drinking, I bought a Bible and began attending church.

One Sunday on my way to church, I met a tailor working in his roadside

shop. “Where are you going?” he asked.

“To church,” I replied.

“Why are you going today?” he asked. “Yesterday was God’s Sabbath

day.” Curious, I stopped to talk. The tailor told me that God has the answer

to my problems and offered to teach me from the Bible.

The tailor could not read, but he knew the Bible. He sat down beside me,

opened a notebook filled with Bible references, and pointed to one. “Look

this one up,” he said. I found the Bible verses and read them. Then he

explained to me what they meant.

We read many Bible texts, and the tailor explained each one to me.

Finally he told me to read Exodus 20. I read the Ten Commandments and

suddenly I realized that I was finding truths I had never known.

I asked the tailor what church he belonged to, and he said he belonged to

the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He told me where the church was

located and invited me to visit. I thanked him and promised to be in church

the next Sabbath. I then continued on to the Protestant church to tell my

friends what I had just learned and to invite them to come to the Adventist

church on Sabbath.

The next Sabbath I found the Adventist church and worshiped there. In

that church I found God’s peace and the power to overcome alcohol and

tobacco. It took some time, but with God’s help, I never smoked or drank

again.

My drinking cost me everything—my job, my wife, my home. But God

has given me my life back. I am happy in Jesus, and I have invited my

friends to find Jesus as well. At least 15 have come to know God’s truth and

joined the Adventist church because I shared with them what God has done

for me.

Your mission offerings help bring the gospel to thirsty souls everywhere.

FULGÊNCIO CHALUFOIA shar

es his faith in Chimoio

, Mozambique

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.

Web site: www.adventistmission.org

L ESSON

*May 24–30

The Tenderness of His

Love

SABBATH AFTERNOON

Read for This Week’s Study:

Matt. 5:44–48; 19:13, 14;

23:37; Luke 10:38–42; John 8:2–11; Acts 6:7.

Memor

y Text:

“But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved

with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scat-

tered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd”

(Matthew 9:36).

atthew 9:35 tells how Jesus went through many areas of

Palestine “preaching the good news of the kingdom and heal-

ing every disease and sickness”

(NIV). In our cynical age, when

people suspect that every effort to help them is tinged with some hidden

agenda, the motive behind Jesus’ ministry comes as a breath of fresh air:

genuine love, described as “compassion” (vs. 36). He was moved for the

people; His heart went out to them. We see this same general concern in

Mark 8:1–3, where Jesus is concerned about the people fainting on their

way home. “They have . . . been with Me three days,” He reminds His

disciples, “and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will

collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance”

(vss. 2, 3, NIV).

This is a remarkably tender concern that says a lot about Jesus. He

knew His audience. He empathized with their needs. He felt their pain.

Nor does He ask us to be exactly what He was or to do exactly what He

did. Although He had gone through 40 days of fasting, He was con-

cerned about the health and safety of those who had experienced just

three days eating next to nothing (though perhaps not totally without

food).

This is the kind of loving compassion we want to trace in this week’s

lessons, in the lives of individuals and that of the nation of Israel.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, May 31.

SUNDAY

May 25

For the Woman Caught in Adultery

(John 8:2–11)

Review

the story of the woman caught in adultery. Though Ellen G.

White made it clear that the woman was set up (The Desire of Ages,

p. 461), there was still no question of her guilt. Nevertheless, how

did Jesus treat her? What can we learn from this story?

____________________________________________________________________

“In His act of pardoning this woman and encouraging her to live a

better life, the character of Jesus shines forth in the beauty of perfect

righteousness. While He does not palliate sin, nor lessen the sense of

guilt, He seeks not to condemn, but to save. The world had for this

erring woman only contempt and scorn; but Jesus speaks words of

comfort and hope. The Sinless One pities the weakness of the sinner,

and reaches to her a helping hand. While the hypocritical Pharisees

denounce, Jesus bids her, ‘Go, and sin no more.’ ”—Ellen G. White,

The Desire of Ages, p. 462.

What tender compassion and love on Jesus’ part! He handled the sit-

uation in such a way that forever afterward the woman’s accusers

would be eager to leave her alone, since they never could be sure what

she had read about their private lives on the pavement that morning.

what ways was Jesus ministering even to the hypocrites who brought

this woman to Him in order to try to snare Him?

____________________________________________________________________

If you read the story carefully, you can see the compassion of Jesus

even for those who were so evil in their intentions. If only their hearts

would have been as open to the wooing of Christ as was that unfortu-

nate woman’s.

How would the typical Adventist congregation handle a situa-

tion like this? How do we balance adherence to high moral stan-

dards with compassion f

or those w

ho fall?

MONDAY

May 26

For the Children (Matt. 19:13, 14)

Children have borne the brunt of suffering over the centuries.

Helpless and dependent, they often have been caught in the crossfires

of wars and conflicts, public riots and family feuds. It was children,

infant males in particular, who bore the brunt of the first hideous

“solution of the Jewish problem” under the ancient pharaohs of Egypt

(Exod. 1:15, 16). And it was infant males who again were decimated

in Herod’s slaughter of the innocents (Matt. 2:16), leading Matthew to

recall another time of indiscriminate slaughter of children at the start

of the Babylonian captivity (Matt. 2:17, 18; compare Jer. 31:15).

Learning about Herod’s slaughter, perhaps on His mother’s knees, how

keenly Jesus must have remembered it, knowing that these innocent

little ones had died, in a sense, because of Him. (He had come to die

for them; but before He was old enough even to conceive of His mis-

sion, they had died because of Him.)

How

do the following passages capture Jesus’ tender love and concern

for infants and children? What messages are being given to us in

these accounts that go beyond how we should treat children?

(Matt. 18:2–6, 19:13–15).

____________________________________________________________________

Those children who sat on Jesus’lap that day and to whom His hand

had been outstretched in blessing, what might their future have been?

What memories did they take from that day, those old enough to

remember? Did some of them later accept Jesus as the Messiah? And

how must they have felt to know that that loving Person who had put

His hands on them in blessing was now in the highest heavens minis-

tering in their behalf? What depth of assurance that must have brought

them! Politicians kiss babies for their parents’ votes; but Jesus loved

the children for their own sake. “Let the little children come to me,”

He scolded His protective disciples, “and do not hinder them, for the

kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these”

(Matt. 19:14, NIV).

What children, if any, are within your own sphere of influence?

How do you respond to them? Think carefully about how you

treat them. What steps can you take to make sure your influence

is as positive as possible?

TUESDAY

May 27

For the Lazarus Family (John 11:5)

We do not know a great deal about the Lazarus family of Bethany.

The Gospels provide us with little about them. But it seems clear that they

were three unmarried adult siblings keeping house together. Probably not

your typical Jewish family, but that is where Jesus chose to go when-

ever He came to town. John informs us that “Jesus loved Martha and

her sister [Mary] and [their brother] Lazarus”

(John 11:5, NIV).

Study

the incident recorded in Luke 10:38–42. How do you see Jesus’

handling of Martha? How, even here, do we see the loving com-

passion of Jesus being manifest?

____________________________________________________________________

Martha’s request seems eminently justified. After all, the meal lay

at the center of Eastern hospitality, and preparing it had to count for

something. Perhaps too poor to afford servants, Martha in the kitchen

needed help. In light of all this, Jesus’ response to her comes across as

uncharacteristically uncaring.

Perhaps the key to understanding it is to consider the wider dimen-

sion of Jesus’ mission. For Jesus, nothing was ordinary, as His own

parents discovered during the incident at the temple

(Luke 2:48, 49).

For Jesus, destiny hung upon every minute of His time with us, and in

that context, kitchen work did not count, regardless of its importance.

Still, we misunderstand Jesus if we think He was unsympathetic to

Martha. Quite the opposite is the case. The Gospels do not provide us

with video clips of the incidents they report. We cannot see the face of

Jesus as He responded to Martha. We cannot hear the pathos in His

voice. Using our imagination, however, and informed by what we know

of Jesus elsewhere in the Gospels, we may picture Him rising from His

place as He addresses Martha, affectionately calling her name twice.

“Martha, Martha,” He says, making His way to the kitchen, Mary fol-

lowing, “there’s something infinitely more important than entertaining,

and Mary has found it”

(Luke 10:41, 42, paraphrase).

In what ways might you be in the position of Martha, so busy

with the cares of this world that you forget what is really impor-

tant? Most important, how can you tell if your priorities are not

right?

WEDNESDAY

May 28

For His Enemies (Matt. 5:44)

One

of Jesus’ most famous sayings was found in Matthew 5:44–48.

Review the verses. What is the essence of this important message

to all who would follow Jesus?

____________________________________________________________________

In a real sense, one could say that Christ’s whole life and death were

a manifestation of this principle, that of loving your enemies, that of

doing good even to those who do not do you good.

After the Fall of Adam and Eve, the whole world became, in a sense,

enemy territory, a race of fallen and rebellious beings living in oppo-

sition to God. What, though, did God do to this enemy planet? Did He

send an army of angels down to sweep it away in its iniquity? No,

instead, He sent Jesus, His Son, who came to save the world, not to

condemn it.

What

overt examples can you find in the Gospels that show the love

of Jesus, even for His enemies? Which ones stand out the most in

your mind?

____________________________________________________________________

How about, for example, when He healed the ear of the servant

when Peter cut it off (Luke 22:50, 51)? Or how about the time He

revealed to Judas His foreknowledge of what Judas was going to do,

giving the hardened disciple another opportunity to turn away from

his sin (Matt. 26:25)?

Of course, the greatest example has to be His prayer to the Father as

He was being crucified: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what

they do”

(Luke 23:34). In many ways that is the ultimate example of

love for those who do not deserve it; though they did not know what

they were doing, they had no excuse. During His time here, Jesus gave

ample opportunity, to both Jews and Romans, to know who He was, or

at least to know enough to know that Jesus did not deserve what He was

getting. Despite that, Jesus showed His compassion for them anyway.

It is one thing to sa

y you are supposed to love your enemies; it is

another to know how to do it. What is the key to manifesting this

attribute in your own life? How willing are you to make the

changes needed in order to be able to love your enemies?

THURSDAY

May 29

For Israel (Matt. 23:37)

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and

stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have

gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chick-

ens under her wings, and ye would not!”

(Matt. 23:37).

How

is the character of Jesus revealed in the above text? What does

it tell us about God’s love for His people? What does it tell us

about the limits of what love can do? At the same time, before you

start pointing fingers at anyone, ask yourself: How might those

words be applied directly to me?

____________________________________________________________________

If God shared the same emotions as humans, then the story of His

relationship with Israel would amount to four thousand y

ears of

almost continuous disappointment and frustration. To be sure, there

were high points, times when the nation brought God joy, but those

times were rare and comparatively brief. Eventually, His phenomenal

patience running out, God gave the nation a period of 490 years (Dan.

9:24) that would reach to the coming of Messiah. Jesus was that

Messiah; and what we see in Him, from start to finish, was an attitude

of compassion, a love at once tough yet tender.

How

does Matthew 23:25–35 exemplify the toughness of Jesus’ love?

____________________________________________________________________

What we are watching here is the phenomenon of Divine patience

nearing its end. Yet, however severely provoked, and however pro-

tracted the provocation, tenderness breaks through the outer crust of

Jesus’ toughness. He would not have spoken those harsh words were

there not hope that some of these people eventually would see the

error of their ways.

Read Acts 6:7.

Notice w

ho was also “obedient to the faith.”

Might some of them have been among those Jesus rebuked ear-

lier? What is the message to us here about being quick to judge

or condemn?

FRIDAY

May 30

Further Study:

Read Ellen G. White, “Lazarus Come Forth,”

pp. 524–536; “Before Annas and the Court of Caiaphas,” pp. 710–715;

“Judas,” pp. 720–722, in The Desire of Ages.

“In the work of soul-winning, great tact and wisdom are needed.

The Saviour never suppressed the truth, but He uttered it always in

love. In His intercourse with others, He exercised the greatest tact, and

He was always kind and thoughtful. He was never rude, never need-

lessly spoke a severe word, never gave unnecessary pain to a sensitive

soul. He did not censure human weakness. He fearlessly denounced

hypocrisy, unbelief, and iniquity, but tears were in His voice as He

uttered His scathing rebukes. He never made truth cruel, but ever

manifested a deep tenderness for humanity. Every soul was precious

in His sight. He bore Himself with divine dignity; yet He bowed with

the tenderest compassion and regard to every member of the family of

God. He saw in all, souls whom it was His mission to save.”—Ellen

G. White, Gospel Workers, p. 117.

Discussion Questions:

● Dwell on this idea of loving your enemies. What does that

mean, in a practical sense? How is this love to be manifested? Is

there a time when it would be impossible to love your enemies? If

so, what might that situation be?

● What is the situation of the children in your local church?

How much attention is paid to their needs? What could you as a

church be doing better in that regard?

● In what ways is it easy to confuse love with cheap grace? That

is, what danger is there of allowing people to get away with things

that they should not be doing, all because we want to reveal to

them

love? When is love sometimes best manifested by strict,

moral accountability? How can we strike the right balance? If

you are going to err, which side is it best to err on?

● What parallels can you find between the Jewish nation (dur-

ing the time it was a theocracy) and the Adventist Church today?

What lessons should we learn from their example? Are we learn-

ing them?

tor

INSIDE

Rosswick’s Church

by NOS TERRY

Aniwa is a tiny island in the Vanuatu group in the South Pacific. The

island is home to about 500 people, but the Seventh-day Adventist Church

had no presence there. However, Adventists on nearby islands have been

praying to reach these people. Recently God answered those prayers.

Rosswick lives on Aniwa Island. He was a leader of a cargo cult* for

years, and traveled to a neighboring island to attend cult activities.

Occasionally, when he could not return to his home because of rough seas,

he would stay with Adventists on the host island.

He watched his Adventist hosts pray and noted how they took their reli-

gion seriously. And he went to church with them. He learned a few

Christian songs and enjoyed their hospitality until he could return home.

During his visits, he became convinced that Adventists were right in what

they believed, for they lived according to their actions.

These small acts of kindness made a big impact on Rosswick. In a bold

move, he stepped down from leading the cargo cult and pronounced him-

self a Seventh-day Adventist Christian.

He cleared a piece of land and built a small thatched grass house-church

in which to worship. Every Sabbath morning he took his little grand-

daughter to worship in the church. They sang the three Christian songs

they knew; he told the child that God loves them both and that Jesus is

coming back someday. Then they prayed. After their simple Sabbath wor-

ship service, Rosswick and his granddaughter returned to their house to

pray and rest. At sunset Rosswick and his granddaughter returned to the

grass church, sang the same three songs, prayed, and closed the Sabbath.

I visited Rosswick shortly after I heard his story and was humbled to

realize how God used this man to light the flame of truth on a dark island.

Today on Aniwa Island the door is fully open to the Adventist message.

Youth groups have visited in homes and introduced the Adventist message,

and today a Global Mission pioneer is fanning the flame of faith on this

tiny island. Because of Rosswick’s faithfulness and world mission offer-

ings, today many others on Aniwa Island are worshiping with Rosswick

and his granddaughter each Sabbath.

* A cargo cult is a religion that rose out of European efforts to colonize

the islands of the South Pacific. Cargo cults focus on material goods that

followers hoped would come to them if they worshiped certain deities.

NOS TERRY is the Sa

bbath Sc

hool, P

sonal Ministries, and Global Mission dir

ector in the

Trans Pacific Union Mission, part of the South Pacific Division.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.

Web site: www.adventistmission.org

L ESSON

*May 31–June 6

The Meaning of His

Death

SABBATH AFTERNOON

Read for This Week’s Study:

Matt. 27:45, 46; Luke 2:25–

35; 1 Cor. 15:3; 2 Cor. 5:18–21; Gal. 6:14; Heb. 2:17.

Memory Text:

“ ‘For even the Son of Man did not come to be

served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many’ ”

(Mark 10:45, NIV).

cover article in a major magazine reported on a discussion in

a men’s Bible-study group. The topic? The reason for Jesus’

death. Among the questions asked in the discussion were such

things as, What if God’s plan were merely for Jesus to come and give

us good teachings, such as loving our enemies? Or did He have to suf-

fer and die, as well? If so, why? Why wouldn’t the teachings be

enough? And even if He did die, what has that to do with us, today,

many centuries later?

Almost two thousand years after His death, the meaning of the

Cross is still a subject that challenges Christians. In fact, even before

His death, the prophets constantly tried “to find out the time and cir-

cumstances” to which the Holy Spirit was calling their attention,

“when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would

follow”

(1 Pet. 1:10, 11, NIV).

So, this week we will seek to try to answer the important question

of why Jesus died, what purpose was accomplished by His death, and

what it means for us many centuries after the fact. Did Christ, as some

assert, die merely to show us God’s love, and thus to change our feel-

ings about God; or did Christ’

s death, in f

act, do something that

changed how God relates to us? These are all topics worthy of our

deepest interest.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, June 7.

SUNDAY

June 1

Born to Die

Read

Luke 2:25–35. What is the meaning of this passage? What is the

message to Mary? What is its message about Jesus?

This story, told only by Luke, is powerful in its simplicity and pro-

found in its implications. The devout Simeon, meeting at last the

Messiah for whom he had been waiting, reveals the Infant’s future to

His parents with cryptic terseness: “ ‘This child is destined to cause the

falling and rising of many in Israel. . . . And a sword will pierce your

own soul too’ ” (Luke 2:34, 35, NIV). The word for “sword” in the

Greek signifies a huge, Goliath-type instrument, destined to pierce the

heart of Mary, a prediction of the agony she would experience at the

Cross. “These mysterious words of Simeon must have passed over

Mary’s consciousness like a chilling and ominous portent of things to

come.”—The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 5, p. 704.

What

do the following passages tell us about the death of Jesus? Was

it something that had to happen? (Matt. 16:21; 26:52–54; Mark

10:45; Luke 18:31–33; John 3:14; Heb. 9:25–28).

____________________________________________________________________

The consistent note here is that Jesus was born to die; His death was

not an accident. It

had to happen. Why did it have to? Well, that is not

a matter that can be explained fully by rational processes, not because

it is irrational, but because it is

suprarational, above human reason. It

falls in the realm of Divine revelation, part of that “mystery . . . kept

hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints”

(Col. 1:26, NIV). The Bible does not go into any long attempt to jus-

tify it or to explain it, maybe because it is not something subject to

human logic. We do not have other instances elsewhere by which to

judge or compare it. Biblical atonement represents a solo occurrence

in the history of the universe. And our task is to seek to understand

what the Bible says about it and to apply what it means to our own

lives.

The fact that Jesus had to die in order to atone for our sin

should tell us something about how serious sin really is. How

seriously do you take the sin in your own life? What efforts are

you making to o

ercome?

MONDAY

June 2

How It Happened (Matt. 27:45, 46)

The Gospels devote an immense amount of space to the final week

of Jesus’ life. In Matthew, it occupies one-third of the book. In Mark,

more than one-third. And one-quarter of Luke and one-half of John

are devoted to it. Clearly, the central focus is on Jesus’ passion, death,

and resurrection. The Gospels are not biographies; they should be

seen, rather, as theological summaries of the significance of Jesus’

death.

Relive

the awful events of the Passion by reviewing the following pas-

sages: Matt. 27:27–31, 45–54; Mark 15:21–32; John 19:28–30. How

do they make you feel? What is your overwhelming emotion, and

why?

____________________________________________________________________

None of us ever can claim to understand the full meaning of Jesus’

death or the circumstances surrounding it. What seems clear, however,

is that the role played by those physically present and active (whether

at His trial or at the cross) was theologically incidental, so far as the

participants’ racial or national identities were concerned. To malign

Jews today, or modern Italians for that matter, for the involvement of

some of their ancestors in the death of Jesus is theological stupidity,

an attitude contrary to the very essence of biblical religion. The indi-

vidual guilt of those involved in His death will be a matter between

them and God. Instead of pointing fingers, maybe we should ask our-

selves, What might we have done were we, ourselves, there? In one

sense, actually, we were!

Read Matthew 26:38. What was it that hung so heavy on the

Savior during this crushing agony? How did He manage to sur-

vive the ordeal?

(See Luke 22:43.) “Having made the [final] deci-

sion,” wrote Ellen G. White, “He fell dying to the ground [there

in the garden]”

( The Desire of Ages, p. 693). This means that

although He later was killed by Roman hands, the fatal blow

had come much earlier, delivered by one giant, collective hand,

ours. How does it make you feel, knowing that your own guilt

caused the death of Jesus? More important, how should you

respond to those feelings?

TUESDAY

June 3

What It Accomplished: Part 1

What

is the central focus of these following passages? (1 Cor. 2:2, 15:3,

Gal. 6:14).

The writers of the New Testament used a variety of metaphors,

images, and pictures in their attempts to express the saving work of

God in Christ. In this lesson (and in Wednesday’s) we sample a few:

1. The Concept of Sacrifice, Offering, Substitute—Ephesians 5:2:

Christ “gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering [prosphoran] and

sacrifice [thusian] to God” (NIV). Hebrews 9:26: He came “to do

away with sin by the sacrifice [thusias] of himself ” (NIV). Hebrews

10:14: By means of “one sacrifice [prosphora] he has made perfect

forever those who are being made holy” (NIV).

The idea in all these passages is that of vicarious death, death in our

place, death as our Substitute. Vicarious suffering is suffering endured

by one person in the stead of another. In 1 Corinthians 15:3, Paul says

that “Christ died for our sins” (NIV); Romans 5:8 says that “while we

were still sinners, Christ died for us” (NIV); and 1 Peter 2:24 says that

Christ “bore our sins in his body on the tree” (NIV).

2. The Concept of Ransom: The word ransom derives from the

Greek term

lutron; the basic idea conveyed is that of a payment for

something delivered. In classical Greek the term often was used in

connection with the redemption of slaves and war prisoners. The

sacred writers borrowed the concept and pressed it into the service of

a grander theme

(Matthew 20:28; compare Mark 10:45): Jesus came

“to give his life as a ransom [lutron] for many” (NIV). (Here “many,”

incidentally, means “all.”)

The family of words from which lutron comes puts the finger on the

substitutionary nature of Christ’s sacrifice. He gave His life for us, the

tense of the verb gave in the original Greek pointing to a specific

event in time, to Jesus’ death on the cross. The basic concept here is

that we were slaves to sin, condemned to eternal death, and unable to

free ourselves; but Jesus came as our ransom, our

lutron.

Think about the things that you have done wrong, things you

knew were wrong but did them anyway. What does it mean to

you to know that Someone Else, Jesus, Someone innocent,

received in Himself the punishment that would, otherwise, be

yours for those things (and others) you did?

WEDNESDAY

June 4

What It Accomplished: Part 2

Yesterday, we discussed two of the many metaphors employed by

the writers of the New Testament to express the accomplishments of

Christ’s death. Here are two more:

1. The Concept of Propitiation (or Expiation) (hilasterion): In

regard to the mission of Christ, the word is found in Hebrews 2:17,

where it speaks of Christ making “propitiation for the sins of the peo-

ple”

(NKJV). “Propitiation” has the sense of pacifying someone. The

belief was that when a god was angry, the people should make a ges-

ture of appeasement (hilasterion) in order to render the god hilaros

(happy, joyous) once more. What students of the New Testament

repeatedly have noted, however, is that its authors, though borrowing

vocabulary from classical Greek and elsewhere, nevertheless fill that

vocabulary with brand-new content and meaning.

Accordingly, many Bible scholars agree that a better English trans-

lation of the word is “expiation.” So understood, the idea is that by

means of Jesus’ death, God “expiates,” “covers,” “erases” our sin. Any

idea of human appeasement of God would be utterly foreign to the

New Testament writers. Instead, they wanted to emphasize that the

entire human race, threatened by the righteous wrath of God on

account of sin, was rescued by Jesus’ death. Jesus became our

hilas-

terion, covering us from the wrath of God (see Heb. 9:5).

2. The Concept of Reconciliation (katallage):

Read

the following passages. What important emphasis do they share

in common?

(Rom. 5:10, 11; 2 Cor. 5:18–21; Eph. 2:16; Col.

1:20–22).

Sin is departure from God and God’s will. It puts us into a condition

of estrangement from God, a state whose end result is death.

Reconciliation speaks of the restoration of harmony between us and

God, the recovery of wholeness. And here is a critical point to note: It

was God who took the initiative

(Rom. 5:8–11). “God was in Christ,

reconciling the world unto himself” (2 Cor. 5:19). Because of sin, the

whole world stood condemned before a righteous God; because of the

Cross, our standing before God changed, and thus all who come to

Jesus by faith have the assurance of eternal life.

Because of the Cr

oss, you have the opportunity by faith to stand

perfect, holy, and accepted by God. In what ways, on a daily

basis, should your life reflect this new standing that we can have

through Jesus?

THURSDAY

June 5

The Security of the Universe

The cross has become the central symbol of Christianity. And in the

theology of the New Testament, it says several things about the human

condition, pointing beyond itself to its ultimate accomplishment.

Examine

the following passages. What do they say about the human

condition and about the need for Jesus’ death? (Rom. 3:10, 23;

1 Cor. 2:2; 15:3; Gal. 6:14).

____________________________________________________________________

The Greeks and others in the ancient world thought of humanity as

basically in good moral health. Given the right opportunity, our natu-

ral, innate goodness will blossom and flourish, they believed. The atti-

tude represented a significant challenge for Christianity, with its con-

cept of universal human depravity and our desperate need for outside

intervention. That is why Paul could say that “the message of the cross

is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being

saved it is the power of God”

(1 Cor. 1:18, NIV). That quiet power, he

said, will eventually conquer, and “every knee [in the universe] should

bow, . . . confess[ing] that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Phil. 2:10, 11, NIV).

Yet, however central to our salvation, the Cross has an importance

that goes beyond us.

“The significance of the death of Christ will be seen by saints and

angels. Fallen men could not have a home in the paradise of God with-

out the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. . . . The angels

ascribe honor and glory to Christ, for even they are not secure except

by looking to the sufferings of the Son of God. It is through the effi-

cacy of the cross that the angels of heaven are guarded from apostasy.

Without the cross they would be no more secure against evil than were

the angels before the fall of Satan. Angelic perfection failed in heaven.

Human perfection failed in Eden, the paradise of bliss. All who wish

for security in earth or heaven must look to the Lamb of God. The plan

of salvation, making manifest the justice and love of God, provides an

eternal safeguard against defection in unfallen worlds, as well as

among those who shall be redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.”—Ellen

G. White Comments,

The SD

A Bible Commentary,

ol. 5, p. 1132.

Even the angels in heaven are guarded from apostasy because of

the Cross! What an incredible thought! If the Cross means so

much to unfallen beings, those whose lives were not even

redeemed by it,

w m

uch mor

e so should the Cr

oss be the cen-

tral focus for us, we who have been redeemed through it?

FRIDAY

June 6

Further Study:

Read Ellen G. White, “Calvary,” pp. 744–757; “It

Is Finished,” pp. 758–764, in The Desire of Ages.

“Well, then, might the angels rejoice as they looked upon the

Saviour’s cross; for though they did not then understand all, they knew

that the destruction of sin and Satan was forever made certain, that the

redemption of man was assured, and that the universe was made eter-

nally secure. Christ Himself fully comprehended the results of the sac-

rifice made upon Calvary. To all these He looked forward when upon

the cross He cried out, ‘It is finished.’ ”—Ellen G. White, The Desire

of Ages, p. 764.

“The death of Christ upon the cross made sure the destruction of

him who has the power of death, who was the originator of sin. When

Satan is destroyed, there will be none to tempt to evil; the atonement

will never need to be repeated; and there will be no danger of another

rebellion in the universe of God.”—Ellen G. White Comments,

The

SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 5, p. 1132.

Discussion Questions:

● Some limit the Cross to a mere demonstration of God’s love,

devoid of any legal or atoning efficacy. That is, Christ died

merely to show us the Father’s love; there was no change in our

legal standing before the Father. Hence, the only purpose of the

Cross was to bring a change in us and in our attitude toward

God. Why is such a position a radically weak and ultimately

unsatisfactory view of Jesus’ death? How does such a view, of

necessity, lead to a salvation-by-works theology?

● Dwell more on this idea of the universe being made secure by

the Cross. What does this tell us about the Cross and about the

grand issues that it dealt with? How does our understanding of

the great controversy help us better appreciate what happened at

the Cross?

● The life and death of Jesus present us with mystery from start

to finish. Though there are aspects that we can understand, other

things remain a mystery. How can you learn to trust the Lord

regarding the things you do not understand? What is the key to

keeping your faith strong?

tor

INSIDE

Kobamo’s Urgent Message

Kobamo is the eldest son of a poor cattle herder in southern Ethiopia.

His parents wanted a better life for him, so they sent him to school. There

Kobamo met some Adventist children. Kobamo knew almost nothing about

God, but he listened as his classmates shared their faith with him. Over

time he realized that God loves even him, a poor farm boy.

He could not attend the Adventist church with them, for he had many

chores to do on Saturday. However, sometimes he attended special after-

noon programs when his work was done. In time Kobamo accepted Jesus

as his Savior.

Kobamo’s grandfather was a witch doctor, an important and feared man.

One day Kobamo felt an urge to visit his grandfather, who lived an hour’s

walk away. In Kobamo’s culture children do not associate with their elders,

even their grandparents. So Kobamo’s parents were surprised when he

asked to visit his grandfather. Nevertheless, they allowed him to go.

Kobamo finished his chores and set out for his grandparents’ home. The

sun was low in the sky when Kobamo reached their home. His grand-

parents were surprised to see Kobamo, and they invited him to come in and

sit down. But Kobamo stood up saying, “I will not sit down until I have told

you what I have come to say. God sent me to tell you to believe in Him.”

Kobamo did not have a Bible, and he did not know many Bible texts to

quote to his grandfather. He just knew that his grandfather needed to

believe in God. So Kobamo, in his childish way, simply urged his grand-

parents to believe in God.

Kobamo’s grandparents were surprised that this young boy would talk to

them in this way. For four hours Kobamo told his grandparents what he

knew about God and asked them to believe.

Finally Kobamo’s grandfather told the boy that he believed that God had

sent Kobamo to share this message. The couple knew nothing about God

except what Kobamo had told them, but because their young grandson

spoke so bravely to them, this influential couple accepted Jesus as their

Savior and faithfully attended church until their deaths.

Kobamo’s parents joined another Protestant church, but Kobamo insisted

on attending the Adventist Church. He obeyed his parents in everything,

but he refused to work on God’s holy day. His parents allowed Kobamo to

follow his faith, for they had seen God working in his life.

Our mission offerings help spread the gospel in Ethiopia, where half the

population follows non-Christian religions. Thank you for sharing Christ

through your mission of

ferings.

KOBAMO continues to share his faith in southern Ethiopia.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.

Web site: www.adventistmission.org

L ESSON

*June 7–13

The Power of His

Resurrection

SABBATH AFTERNOON

Read for This W

eek’s Study:

Matt. 27:62–66, Luke

24:36–39, Acts 3:14–16, 1 Corinthians 15, Phil. 3:7–10.

Memory Text:

“ ‘I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold

I am alive for ever and ever!’ ” (Revelation 1:18, NIV).

s Easter approached, a teacher sent her students out into nature

around the school. She gave each a little box with the follow-

ing assignment: Bring back something in the box that is a sym-

bol of life. When the children returned, each box was opened, one at a

time. The first box had a butterfly, which flew away as she opened the

container. Another had leaves. Another twigs. But then one box she

opened was empty.

“How stupid!” one student exclaimed. “Somebody didn’t do the

assignment!”

At that point, Philip, a boy with Down’s syndrome, spoke up:

“That’s my box.”

“Well, Philip,” the same boy continued, undeterred, “you messed up

the assignment!”

“No,” replied Philip, confidently. “The tomb was empty!”

On that day Philip became a respected member of the group. He

died not long afterward, and at his funeral all the members of the class

brought empty boxes to the service, in honor of their fallen classmate.

Yes indeed, the tomb was empty! And in that empty tomb we find

the great hope of all Christians e

erywhere. This week we look at that

hope, which is found in the resur

rection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, June 14.

SUNDAY

June 8

The Story of the Resurrection: Part 1

(Matt. 27:62–66)

Several events may be described as pivotal to Christianity, among

them the Incarnation, the Cross, and the Second Coming. But in a

sense, the Resurrection trumps them all, even the Cross that we

extolled in last week’s lesson. For without the Resurrection, nothing

else matters. Indeed, when we talk about the death of Jesus, we logi-

cally include the Resurrection, unstated. It is the central doctrine of

the Christian faith.

Of all the world religions, Judaism and Christianity are the only two

that espouse the concept of a resurrection, as such; and only

Christianity makes it central. Only Christianity has been founded on

the belief that its central Figure actually was raised from the dead. All

four Gospels cover the extraordinary event, and they tell the story with

a straightforwardness that makes it utterly credible.

What

contribution does each of the following passages make to the

credibility of the Resurrection story to follow?

Matt. 27:50–53

____________________________________________________________________

Matt. 27:54–56

____________________________________________________________________

Matt. 27:57–61 (compare Mark 15:42–47)

____________________________________________________________________

Matt. 27:62–66

____________________________________________________________________

The occurrences listed here are all public. Given the date of the

Gospel of Matthew (believed to be written before A.D. 70), eyewit-

nesses still would have been alive either to confirm or refute these

reports. Nor would the religious establishment have had any interest

in letting such claims and assertions go unchallenged if false: The

rending of the temple curtain

“from the top”! (certainly some of those

who had ministered in the complex that day would have seen some-

thing); the earthquake would have been public and universal for the

immediate area; the resurrection of dead people and their appearance

to many in the city (what possible reason could the writer have for

manufacturing a detail lik

e that!); the witness of the Roman centurion

and his fellow soldiers; the sealing of the tomb; the posting of a spe-

cial guard; the list goes on. These are concrete events, related with no

special pleading or defensiveness whatsoever.

MONDAY

June 9

The Story of the Resurrection: Part 2

(Luke 24:36–39)

In yesterday’s lesson, we began listing a group of passages in the

Gospels that describe events surrounding the death of Jesus, events

that in their straightforward and unembellished naturalness commend

the credibility of the Resurrection story. Following are a few more

passages in the same vein.

What

essential message is found in these verses? What key point do all

of them have in common? (Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24:10–44).

____________________________________________________________________

Although the above list does not carry any reference from John, all

four Gospels cover the Resurrection in considerable detail.

Why

do you think that is so? What is so important about the Resur-

rection to our faith?

____________________________________________________________________

“The historic faith of the Church has agreed with St. Paul: ‘If Christ

has not been raised, your faith is futile’ (1 Cor. 15:17). All other

Christian doctrines are dependent upon the proclamation of the resur-

rection: the significance of Christmas lies in the fact that the child

who was born is the one whom God raised from the dead; Good

Friday is only the anniversary of one more martyrdom, unless he who

died is the one who rose again; the institution of the Lord’s Supper in

the Church would have been unthinkable, had not the Lord been

known to the faithful in the breaking of bread.”—Alan Richardson,

ed., “Resurrection of Christ,”

A Dictionary of Christian Theology

(Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1969), p. 290.

In the texts f

or today, we see the power of Jesus’ resurrection,

both physically and spiritually. He broke the shackles of the

tomb; the Roman seals gave way; the grave burst open. And He

declares today, “ ‘I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold

I am alive for ever and ever!’ ”

(Re

v. 1:18, NIV).

If y

ou were

asked to say in ten w

ds or fe

er w

hat the Resurrection means

to you, what might those words be?

TUESDAY

June 10

It Empowered a Movement (Acts 3:14–16)

How could such an outlandish belief as the resurrection of a dead

prophet spread through a pagan empire like that of Rome if it had no

credence? Why would a bunch of fishermen and tax collectors,

against all odds, invent such a story? And if they did invent it, how did

they come to believe it so strongly themselves that they were prepared

not only to forsake family and friends to defend it, but to give their

lives for the sake of the One they proclaimed as the risen Christ?

The arrest, trial, and execution of their Master had left these fol-

lowers broken, traumatized, defeated. Disillusioned, the erstwhile

inner circle began falling back upon old patterns, moving back into

their accustomed grooves (and they themselves tell the story). We hear

only about going fishing (the former livelihood of most of them); but

there also must have been a lot of brooding by the likes of nonfisher-

men, such as Matthew and Simon the Zealot, wondering where to go

from there, what to do next.

Flash ahead weeks later, to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at

Pentecost

(Acts 2). As Peter delivered his impromptu Pentecostal ser-

mon, it was his reference to Jesus as a living person, risen and exalted

before the heavenly Father, the astonishing declaration that Jesus was

alive, that hearers homed in on. “ ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’ ” they

responded (Acts 2:37, NIV).

Nor was the emphasis on the Resurrection a fad for these early

believers, an ephemeral novelty to be abandoned when something bet-

ter came along. Quite to the contrary, the Resurrection constituted the

central element of apostolic preaching, with Peter and the other apos-

tles repeatedly returning to it in their discourses.

Read

Acts 3:11–16, 4:8–12, 7:54–56, 17:29–31. What theme do they

constantly refer to? And why?

“For the earliest Christian preaching it is the Resurrection that des-

ignates Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God. . . . This is the point at

which his reign as Messiah begins, when . . . he enters upon and inau-

gurates the age of GLORY.”—Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible,

vol. R–Z, p. 44.

Writing to the Philippians, Paul spoke of wanting to “know

Christ and the po

er of his r

esurrection”

(Phil. 3:10, NIV).

What do you think that means? How can we today experience

the power of the Resurrection in our lives? (See, for example,

John 3:3, Rom. 6:1–12.)

WEDNESDAY

June 11

Provided Authority for Witnessing

(Phil. 3:7–10)

We see the power of the Resurrection in the ministry of the apostles.

Peter’s words to the cripple are anchored solid in a resurrected Savior:

“ ‘In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk’ ” (Acts 3:6, NIV).

Then as the people go wild with astonishment and wonder over the

miracle, Peter reminds them of the trial and death of Jesus (vss. 13,

14) and then begins to move toward the good news, his goal from the

start: “ ‘You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the

dead’ ” (vs. 15, NIV). And, says Peter, it is through the power released

by His resurrection that the crippled man was made to walk. “ ‘By faith

in the name of Jesus, this man . . . was made strong. It is Jesus’ name

and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete

healing’ ”

(vs. 16, NIV).

The spectacular miracle notwithstanding, Peter is arrested and

called upon to answer for these unusual developments: “ ‘By what

power or what name did you do this?’ ” (Acts 4:7, NIV). With such an

invitation, Peter falls back on what fast was becoming his favorite

theme, the resurrection of Jesus: “ ‘It is by the name of Jesus Christ

of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead,

that this man stands before you healed’ ”

(vs. 10, NIV).

So, on three separate occasions now, Peter has zeroed in like a laser

beam upon the resurrection of Jesus as the source of his power for wit-

nessing. In fact, the very preaching of Christ implied His resurrection

(Acts 5:40–42).

“The conviction that Jesus continued to live transformed a dozen or

so disconsolate followers of a slain and discredited leader into one of

the most dynamic groups in human history. We read that tongues of

fire descended upon them. People who were not speakers became elo-

quent. They exploded across the Greco-Roman world, preaching what

has come to be called the Gospel but is literally the good news.

Starting in an upper room in Jerusalem, they spread their message

with such fervor that in their own generation it took root in every

major city of the region.”—Huston Smith,

The Illustrated World’s

Religions (New York: HarperCollins, 1986), p. 215.

Read 1 Corinthians 15, Paul’s great treatise on the Resurrection.

How central is this truth to the Christian faith? In other words,

how much hangs on it? Do you have loved ones who have passed

away? What particular sections of Paul’s treatise bring you the

greatest comf

THURSDAY

June 12

Guarantees Our Own Resurrection

(1 Cor. 15:20)

No matter how clear the New Testament is on the literal bodily res-

urrection of Jesus, some liberal theologians, trapped in a purely sci-

entific and rationalist worldview, argue against the Resurrection being

real. Instead, they say that the Resurrection should be seen as a myth,

a metaphor of a new resurrected life we can have here and now if and

when we accept, as a community, the moral teaching of Jesus.

However nice that might sound, it is a view based on human think-

ing and not on the clear teaching of God’s Word, which is exceedingly

clear and unequivocal in the literalness of Christ’s resurrection.

For us, there is no danger accepting the Resurrection as a metaphor,

not if we take the Word of God for what it says; and it is explicit about

the literal bodily resurrection of Jesus. And once we are settled in our

acceptance of the Resurrection, then we can for ourselves garner the

hope it offers us in the face of death. Regardless of what happens to

us in this life, we have the hope that, as Jesus rose from the dead, so

will we. The promise of the Resurrection helps us to keep everything

in its proper perspective.

Read

the following passages. What hope do they hold out for our own

resurrection?

John 5:25–29

____________________________________________________________________

John 11:23–26

____________________________________________________________________

1 Cor. 15:51–58

____________________________________________________________________

Rev. 1:18

____________________________________________________________________

The resurrection of Jesus established three certainties: (1) Our des-

tiny is secure in Jesus (1 Pet. 1:3–5); (2) death is a vanquished foe

(1 Cor. 15:20–22); and (3) power is available to share this fantastic

news with others (John 14:12, Acts 1:8).

How should the hope and promise of our resurrection from the

dead help us to keep our life here, and the things that happen in

it, in the proper perspective? Imagine what life would be like if

you did not have this hope.

FRIDAY

June 13

Further Study:

“Over the rent sepulcher of Joseph, Christ had pro-

claimed in triumph, ‘I am the resurrection, and the life.’ These words

could be spoken only by the Deity. All created beings live by the will

and power of God. They are dependent recipients of the life of God.

From the highest seraph to the humblest animate being, all are replen-

ished from the Source of life. Only He who is one with God could say,

I have power to lay down My life, and I have power to take it again. In

His divinity, Christ possessed the power to break the bonds of

death.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 785.

“During His ministry, Jesus had raised the dead to life. He had

raised the son of the widow of Nain, and the ruler’s daughter and

Lazarus. But these were not clothed with immortality. After they were

raised, they were still subject to death. But those who came forth from

the grave at Christ’s resurrection were raised to everlasting life. They

ascended with Him as trophies of His victory over death and the

grave. These, said Christ, are no longer the captives of Satan; I have

redeemed them. I have brought them from the grave as the first fruits

of My power, to be with Me where I am, nevermore to see death or

experience sorrow.”—p. 786.

Discussion Questions:

● Take another look at 1 Corinthians 15, the flagship theologi-

cal defense of the Resurrection in the New Testament. Follow

Paul’s arguments in favor of this basic Christian teaching. Why

do these texts make little sense if you believe that the righteous

dead go immediately to heaven at death? How is our under-

standing of the state of the dead vindicated by these texts? What

makes the promise of the Resurrection so crucial to us as

Seventh-day Adventists with our view of the state of the dead?

● Think about this question, and then bring your answer to

class: How differently would you live if you believed that at death

everything ended forever?

● Go over all the textual evidence you can find that helps affirm

the resurrection of Jesus. Bring it to class, and together review the

evidence. How compelling is it? How can you put this material

together in a way that could be used as a powerful witnessing

tool?

tor

INSIDE

Sanjay’s Miracles: Part 1

Sanjay was a musician and played in a band in India. He was a Christian

and did not join his fellow musicians when they went drinking or dancing.

But something was missing from his life. Sanjay felt bad when his fellow

musicians made fun of his Christian faith.

One day he prayed that God would show His power to his friends so they

would know that He was the only true God. That evening the band loaded

their equipment into a small bus to drive across a mountain pass to their

next appointment. They passed the summit and began their descent when

the driver suddenly realized that he had no brakes. The bus veered off the

road and rolled into the valley far below. No one was killed, but everyone

was injured except Sanjay.

Some of the musicians confessed that Sanjay’s God had saved him from

harm and began calling him “God’s man.”

Sanjay met an Adventist pastor who urged him to surrender his life

totally to God. Sanjay agreed, but even though he felt God wanted him to

use his talents to bring people to Christ, still he hesitated to give up the

band. Then something happened that changed the course of his life.

One day he climbed an old coconut tree to pick fresh coconuts. He

grasped a palm frond to balance himself while he reached for a coconut.

However, the palm frond broke loose, throwing Sanjay off balance. He fell

from the tall tree into a field of cut sugar cane. The stalks that remained in

the field had been cut at an angle and were as sharp as needles. “Lord, save

me!” Sanjay cried as he fell.

His brother heard Sanjay’s cry and watched in horror as his brother fell

into the sharp stalks. He raced to his side, expecting to find his brother

dead, but Sanjay was unhurt. He picked himself up and dusted himself off.

Sanjay realized that God had saved his life a second time. “OK, Lord,” he

said, “I’m Yours. Give me something to do for You.”

He asked the Adventist pastor for work, and the pastor invited him to

come and train to become a lay evangelist. Sanjay agreed. But how could

he lead others to Christ? He had no experience with any work but music.

(continued next week)

SANJAY GHATGE is a lay e

vang

elist w

king in r

emote villa

ges in Maharashtra, India.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.

Web site: www.adventistmission.org

L ESSON

*June 14–20

The Efficacy of His Priestly

Ministry

SABBATH AFTERNOON

Read for This Week’s Study:

Exod. 25:8; Matt. 27:50,

51; Acts 7:54–56; Heb. 6:19, 20; 7:23–28; 8:1, 2; 9.

Memory Text:

“Now this is the main point of the things we are

saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand

of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens” (Hebrews 8:1, NKJV).

ot long after the Creation . . . our first parents fell into sin. . . .

In the wake of this terrible crisis, God’s first concern was for

human restoration and the eternal security of the universe.

The death of a member of the Godhead—a contingency already deter-

mined in the foreknowledge and council of God

(see Rev. 13:8)—was

the only means to that end.

“To secure human participation and cooperation in this supreme

endeavor, God moved quickly to inform our first parents of the plan.

At the same time, He put in place a teaching device to keep it perpet-

ually before their attention and that of succeeding generations.”—Roy

Adams,

The Sanctuary (Hagerstown, Md.: Review and Herald

Publishing Association, 1993), pp. 17, 18. That teaching device, of

course, was the sanctuary service.

The sanctuary became the center of Hebrew worship, and through

its activities and ceremonies it pointed suppliants to the cosmic reali

ties of human salv

ation in a coming Messiah

(see Hebr

ws 9)

and to

the ministry of Jesus in the hea

enly sanctuary. This week we will

look at that heavenly sanctuary and Christ’s ministry there.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, June 21.

“

SUNDAY

June 15

Pointers From the Ancient Tabernacle

(Exod. 25:9, 40)

Moses was told to build the tabernacle according to the pattern God

had shown him on Mount Sinai (Exod. 25:9, 40). And while common

sense would lead us away from the conclusion that every board and

nail of the tabernacle (and later the temple) had theological signifi-

cance, we should, nevertheless, take with all seriousness the teaching

function of the Old Testament sanctuary system. Even so, we are not

given a great deal of information on the meaning of the symbolisms;

in fact, in most cases, none at all. Yet piecing together the little we find

in the Old Testament with what we have in the New Testament, we are

able to arrive at a fairly good understanding of the overall meaning of

certain fundamental aspects of the ancient-sanctuary system and serv-

ice that point beyond themselves to a greater reality. Consider the

following:

1. The morning and evening sacrifice (Exod. 29:38–42, Num. 28:1–6)

2. The shewbread and candlesticks (Exod. 25:23, 30, 31, 37)

3. The Day of Atonement ceremonies (Leviticus 16, Heb. 9:1–12)

4. The high-priestly garments (Exod. 28:6–21)

The morning and evening sacrifices symbolized “the daily conse-

cration of the nation to Jehovah, and their constant dependence upon

the atoning blood of Christ.”—Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and

Prophets, p. 352. Many allusions to bread in the New Testament seem

to suggest that the bread in the tabernacle/sanctuary pointed forward

to Christ (see, for example, Matt. 26:26, John 6:48–51). “Both the

manna and the shewbread pointed to Christ, the living Bread, who is

ever in the presence of God for us.”—Page 354. Similarly, the candle-

sticks seem to point to Him who said, “I am the light of the world”

(John 8:12). “Those semiprecious gems of the [high priest’s] breast-

plate . . . bore the names of the tribes of Israel, suggesting, says Ellen

G. White . . . that as Christ our Great High Priest pleads His blood

before the Father, He bears upon His heart the name of every repen-

tant, believing soul.”—Roy Adams, The Sanctuary, p. 38. Compare it

to Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 351.

Review, to the best of your understanding, the earthly sanctuary

service. How does it help you understand the plan of salvation?

MONDAY

June 16

All Pointers Led to Him

Read

John 1:29. What is the significance of John calling Jesus the

“Lamb of God”?

The wilderness tabernacle stood at the center of Israelite worship

for hundreds of years. And as long as Israel remained faithful to God,

they looked upon this sacred edifice as the place of salvation, the

place of atonement between God and His people. The supernatural

manifestations that accompanied the dedication of the structure

(see

Exod. 40:34, 35) had riveted such impressions deep into the psyche of

those who witnessed them.

The signal demonstration of God’s attendance at the temple’s dedi-

cation gave no hint, however, of the structure’s turbulent future.

Completely destroyed by the Babylonian army, it later was rebuilt,

though not up to the standard of its previous splendor. This, however,

was the temple Jesus knew, the one that felt His footsteps. And as

Jesus died upon a cross outside Jerusalem one Friday afternoon two

thousand years ago, it was in the inner sanctum of this very temple

that the curtain mysteriously ripped in two, from top to bottom (Matt.

27:51).

“It was the hour of the evening sacrifice. The lamb representing

Christ had been brought to be slain.” But the earth shakes, and “with

a rending noise the inner veil of the temple is torn from top to bottom

by an unseen hand, throwing open to the gaze of the multitude a place

once filled with the presence of God.” In one fell swoop, this place

where “the Shekinah had dwelt,” and where “God had manifested His

glory above the mercy seat,” is now open to public view! “The most

holy place of the earthly sanctuary is no longer sacred.” Then in dra-

matic fashion, she brings the message home: “All is terror and confu-

sion. The priest is about to slay the victim; but the knife drops from

his nerveless hand, and the lamb escapes. Type has met antitype in the

death of God’s Son. The great sacrifice has been made. . . . It was as

if a living voice had spoken to the worshipers: There is now an end to

all sacrifices and offerings for sin. The Son of God is come according

to His word.”—Ellen G. White,

The Desire of Ages, pp. 756, 757.

Many Christians today are looking toward the rebuilding of the

temple in Jerusalem as a sign of the end. Even if such a temple

were rebuilt, and sacrifices were resumed, why would those sac-

rifices have no efficacy in dealing with the sin problem?

TUESDAY

June 17

Our High Priest (Heb. 7:25)

The apostle had been saying a host of things in the first chapters of

Hebrews about angels and their status, about Moses and his wilder-

ness experience, about Joshua and the land of Canaan, about the

prophets and Abraham and Melchizedek. But as he reaches chapter 8,

verse 1, he abruptly calls us back to focus:

Read

Hebrews 8:1, 2. What is the main point of all that the apostle

was saying up to these verses?

____________________________________________________________________

Within the physical layout of the ancient Israelite camp, the ordinary

Israelite worshiper stood several barriers removed from the sanctuary’s

innermost sanctum. To gain physical access, it would have been neces-

sary to get b

y the buffer of priests and Levites and no-go areas sur-

rounding the sacred enclosure. But now, says the author of Hebrews,

Christ, our heavenly Priest-Mediator, has opened a door of unlimited

access to the heavenly sanctuary itself, the throne room of the living

God. “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence,” says

the sacred writer, “so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help

us in our time of need”

(Heb. 4:16, NIV). Jesus is our Intercessor in

heaven.

Though we do not know the exact form of Jesus’ intercession for us,

Scripture offers examples of the idea, albeit from a human standpoint.

Two of these occurred in the life of Moses, in connection with the rebel-

lion at Kadesh

(Num. 14:10–20), and in connection with the golden calf

affair (Exod. 32:9–14, 30–32). These are powerful passages. “But now,”

Moses pled with God in that last reference, “please forgive their sin—

but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written” (vs. 32, NIV).

We also witness such forms of priestly intercession in Daniel (Daniel 9)

and in Jesus’ great prayer before His passion (John 17).

Examine the following key passages from Hebrews as examples

of what our heavenly High Priest does for us: Heb. 2:18, 7:25,

8:3–10, 9:11–14, 10:11–17. Most important, ask yourself, How

can I personally benefit in my walk with the Lord by knowing

that Jesus is doing these things for me? How can I apply these

promises in my life?

_____________________________________________________

100

WEDNESDAY

June 18

The Difference It Makes: Part 1

Read

Hebrews 4:16. What promise is there for us? What are we

admonished to do? What hopes does this offer us? How can you

apply what is here to your own life?

____________________________________________________________________

Do those who know Jesus as Savior and High Priest have a spiritual

advantage over others who know Him only as Savior? We will deal

with the question in two lessons, but perhaps we can begin by noting

the contribution of Hebrews 9 to the issue, in general.

There are, of course, several ways to read the chapter. One is to take

a strictly exegetical and linguistic approach to it, defining the mean-

ing of words and phrases, and squeezing out the significance of the

verses from a purely academic point of view. But another way, equally

valid, essentially bypasses all that. Without ignoring the results of the

first approach, it simply reads the chapter and observes what it says.

When we do that, here is what we find, as it relates to the basic ques-

tion before us:

1. What happened under the first covenant (the Old Testament sanc-

tuary services) was provisional only. Fundamentally inadequate to

bring about internal change, the offerings and ceremonies pointed

beyond themselves to something bigger.

2. That bigger something now has happened. Christ has come. He is

the real High Priest

(Heb. 9:11). His entrance into the heavenly sanc-

tuary was not through “the blood of goats and calves; but . . . once for

all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption” (vs. 12,

NIV).

3. The offerings under the old system achieved external results (vs.

13) but could not effect internal change. But the blood of Christ

reaches to our inner being, cleansing “our consciences from acts that

lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!” (vs. 14, NIV).

4. Christ shed His blood once, on our behalf; and now He appears

for us in the presence of God as our High Priest (vs. 24–28).

Read over Hebrews 9. What is the essential message it is giving

us? What promises are found in there that you especially find

encouraging for yourself?

101

THURSDAY

June 19

The Difference It Makes: Part 2

The knowledge and acceptance of Jesus as our High Priest should

make us kind and generous and patient, the same traits He has mani-

fested toward us. It should make us merciful and gracious, in the same

way He has shown mercy and grace toward us. And it should make us

morally upright and everlastingly grateful for the profound sacrifice

made on our behalf. But any Adventist who has interacted with

Christians of other persuasions would readily admit that they have

found them equally gracious and merciful and patient and generous

and kind and morally upright. So, then, what real difference does “our

message of the sanctuary” make?

It probably has something to do with loyalty and faithfulness. When

the author of Hebrews wanted to reestablish the recipients of his book

in the faith, he turned to the sanctuary theme.

Read

Hebrews 10:19–25. What is the practical message given to us

here, a message that should influence how we live our lives and

how we relate to others?

____________________________________________________________________

The book of Hebrews invites us to approach “the throne of grace”

(Heb. 4:16). The implications here are multifaceted, but one of them

gets to the question before us just now. The way has been made for us,

through Jesus, to approach God in the heavenly sanctuary. And to fol-

low Jesus by faith into the sanctuary is not only to have one’s soul

cleansed by His marvelous grace but also to experience a new appre-

ciation for His immutable law

(see Heb. 8:10). This transaction,

utterly significant in the context of what Adventists call “the great

controversy between good and evil,” defines the difference the sanc-

tuary teaching makes for us. By faith we enter with full assurance into

that sacred place where Jesus ministers. And there, against all pos-

sible odds, we cling to the One whose indelible promise is symbolized

by the ark of the covenant, the throne of the living God Himself,

founded on justice and mercy. Thus anchored, we do not drift—not

into a view of the law that leads to the abandonment of God’s holy

Sabbath, and not into evolutionary conceptions of origins that seek to

dethrone the living God from His own universe. The doctrine of the

sanctuary thus becomes a protection for us against rebellion and

secures for God a faithful remnant in a revolted world.

102

FRIDAY

June 20

Further study:

Read Ellen G. White, “In the Holy of Holies,”

pp. 423–426, in The Great Controversy; “The Tabernacle and Its

Services,” pp. 350–358, in Patriarchs and Prophets.

“The subject of the sanctuary was the key which unlocked the mys-

tery of the disappointment of 1844. It opened to view a complete sys-

tem of truth, connected and harmonious, showing that God’s hand had

directed the great Advent Movement, and revealing present duty as it

brought to light the position and work of His people”—Ellen G.

White, The Great Controversy, p. 423.

“I . . . see the heavenly sanctuary as the dwelling place of God, the

seat of His government, the nerve center of the universe. As such, it has

always existed. But with the fall of humanity it assumed an added func-

tion, namely, the solution of the cosmic rebellion and the security of the

universe. It is in this sense that we picture it when we think of the

ancient sacrificial system. We see it through a glass colored by the min-

istry for the eradication of sin.”—Roy Adams, The Sanctuary, p. 71.

“I do not visualize an empty heavenly sanctuary. The throne of God,

in whatever form, is there, surrounded by multitudes of angels. Best

of all—from our standpoint, at least—our All-sufficient High Priest,

Jesus Christ Himself, is there! He fills it full! He stands before the

throne of God for us! And that’s enough for me!”—Page 71.

Discussion Questions:

● How does our understanding of the pre-Advent judgment fit

in with our understanding of Christ as our High Priest in the

heavenly sanctuary? Why should the judgment be part-and-

parcel of our sanctuary message? Most important, how can we

teach the judgment as part of the good news of Jesus as our

Substitute in judgment?

● What does the reality of Christ’s high-priestly ministry mean

to you personally? What experience(s) can you share about how

this teaching has benefited you spiritually?

● Go back over the week’s lesson and make a list of all the ben-

efits we derive from Christ as our High Priest. Bring them to

class and discuss the implication of these benefits and how they

should impact our lives as individuals and as a church commu-

nity. How can we better take advantage of these promises in

order to further our witness and mission to the world?

tor

INSIDE

103

Sanjay’s Miracles: Part 2

Sanjay realized that God had miraculously saved his life twice, and now

he dedicated himself to work for God. He became a lay evangelist and was

sent to a village where no one had even heard of Adventists before.

Sanjay found a family who let him stay in the room in which the family

kept their idols. Sanjay prayed that his host family would be blessed by his

presence and would not force him to leave when they learned that he was

Christian.

Sanjay learned that his host had a health problem. He asked to pray to

his God for the man’s healing. The man agreed, and the homeowner was

healed. Sanjay told the man that he was a Christian and invited him to

study the Bible. The man invited his family to study with him, and within

a few months the entire family gave their hearts to Jesus and offered their

home for small group meetings.

Sanjay visited people, prayed for their needs, and urged them to trust in

the living God, who hears and answers prayer. When one family mocked

him, saying that their god protected and blessed them, Sanjay left feeling

that he had failed. The next day the homeowner told Sanjay that after the

family had gone to bed the night before, a rat had entered their home and

knocked over the oil lamp, which caught the straw walls on fire. The fam-

ily barely got out alive. “We were wrong about your God. Please, may we

attend your prayer meetings?”

Another woman, Ompatti, was troubled by evil spirits. Her husband

abandoned her and their three children. Doctors couldn’t cure the woman,

and trips to religious shrines brought her no relief. Then someone asked

Sanjay to pray for her. As he prayed, Sanjay touched the woman, and she

fell to the ground screaming. The devils left her. She told everyone of her

healing. When her husband learned that she was no longer possessed, he

returned. But he objected to Christianity and refused to have anything to

do with them. Soon after, he became possessed by demons. Church mem-

bers continue to pray for him.

In the three years that Sanjay has worked as a lay evangelist, some 200

people in seven villages have given their lives to Christ and been baptized.

Some of the groups of believers, which number from 15 to 25 people, have

no place to worship. No one’s home is large enough to accommodate

them. They need churches if these congregations are to continue growing.

Sanjay continues to use music and prayer to lead people to Jesus. Your

mission offerings help make Sanjay’s work and the work of Global

Mission pioneers around the w

orld possib

le.

SANJAY GHATGE is a lay e

vang

elist w

king in r

emote villa

ges in Maharashtra, India.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.

Web site: www.adventistmission.org

104

L ESSON

*June 21–27

His Return as King and

Friend

SABBATH AFTERNOON

Read for This W

eek’s Study:

Dan. 9:24–27, Matthew 24,

Luke 21:25–31, John 14:1–3, 1 Thess. 4:13–18, Heb. 9:28.

Memory Text:

“So Christ, having been offered once to bear the

sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to

save those who are eagerly waiting for him”

(Hebrews 9:28, RSV).

hough a distortion of the truth regarding the Second Coming,

the

Left Behind series of books and movies grabbed the atten-

tion of millions worldwide. The whole episode presented God

as wickedly capricious, and it fostered a climate of irrational fear (if

not panic) in people’s minds about the Advent, a mood opposite to the

way the Bible wants us to think about Christ’s return. In the New

Testament, generally, the return of Jesus is a glorious, supremely joy-

ful event. He is our King, and also our Friend.

Though unpleasant elements are associated with the Second

Coming (as we will see), it is not the fear factor that will cause peo-

ple to turn their eyes toward heaven. Fear is important, and we do not

proclaim the whole truth about the Advent without including it. But in

doing so, we ought to stick with what the Scriptures explicitly say and

not present anxiety-provoking nightmares of our own making. To give

the various aspects of the Advent the same emphasis they receive in

Scripture is to create in the hearts of those who care to listen some-

thing akin to the anticipation of children yearning for Christmas.

The message of the Second Coming should be good ne

ws, not

something that sends people looking for anxiety therap

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, June 28.

105

SUNDAY

June 22

Waiting in the Outer Court (Heb. 9:28)

The period in which we are now living was foreshadowed by the

Day of Atonement in ancient Israel. As the high priest performed his

once-a-year ministry in the Most Holy Place, the people, with bated

breath, waited in the outer court for his emergence. That emergence

would signal the successful completion of His work on their behalf,

the eradication of sin from the nation and from the individual.

Since 1844, Christ has been engaged in a phase of ministry prefig-

ured by the Day of Atonement in Israel. When that work is done, He

will emerge from the heavenly sanctuary to receive His people. In the

words of Hebrews 9:28, “Christ, having been offered once to bear the

sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to

save those who are eagerly waiting for him”

(RSV).

How

do the following texts relate to the idea of expectant waiting?

Luke 12:40–48

____________________________________________________________________

Titus 2:11–13

____________________________________________________________________

1 Pet. 1:3–8

____________________________________________________________________

William Miller and his followers ardently expected the emergence of

the heavenly High Priest in 1844. We know they were disappointed, but

try to imagine the passion that moved them. Here were people who

loved Jesus with all they had. They felt close to Him; they yearned to

see Him. He was their friend. And the sentiments expressed years later

by Hiram Edson fairly represent how the whole group felt. They had

“confidently expected to see Jesus Christ and all the holy angels with

Him,” Edson wrote. When that did not happen, “such a spirit of weep-

ing came over us as I never experienced before. . . . We wept, and wept,

till the day dawn.”—Hiram Edson, manuscript fragment, Center for

Adventist Research (from Heritage Room), James White Library,

Andrews University. These believers did not breathe a sigh of relief that

Jesus did not come. Instead, they were disappointed, and bitterly so.

Are you excited about the Second Coming? Do you want it

soon? Or are you fearful? Do you dread it? What are the rea-

sons for your answers? Write them down and then prayerfully

examine what they might be saying about your Christian expe-

rience.

106

MONDAY

June 23

Addressing the Fear Factor

There is a dark side to the coming of Jesus. Jesus Himself said it

will be a time of distress for the nations: “ ‘At that time the sign of the

Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will

mourn’ ”

(Matt. 24:30, NIV). He compares the event to the judgments

of the Flood and of Sodom (Matt. 24:37–39; compare Luke

17:26–30); He speaks of the phenomenon of final separation, using

the illustration of two women grinding at the mill, with one taken, the

other left

(Matt. 24:40, 41). And when He speaks of remaining watch-

ful, His warning could not be stronger (see vss. 43–51). Peter, one of

those present the day Jesus spoke about His coming in Matthew 24,

refers to “the day of the Lord” as one of fire and terror (2 Pet.

3:10–12). When John sees the event in vision, he says that “all the

peoples of the earth will mourn because of him” (Rev. 1:7, NIV); and

Revelation 6:15, 16 portrays people from every walk of life at the

Advent appealing to the rocks and mountains to fall on them and

“hide [them] from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the

wrath of the Lamb!” (NIV).

What

do the following texts say about the Second Coming?

Matt. 25:31–33, 41

____________________________________________________________________

2 Thess. 1:6–9

____________________________________________________________________

Heb. 12:25–29

____________________________________________________________________

There are those who torture and abuse others, those who murder

and exploit, who plunder and pillage, and who rob the coffers of their

governments, leaving millions to suffer in degradation and poverty.

And then there are the good people who arrogantly turn their backs on

God and His gracious offer of mercy and pardon. It would be the

height of irresponsibility to give them the impression that the Second

Coming holds anything for them but bad news, unless they change.

With people’s eternal destiny hanging on these issues, it would be

criminal on our part to sugarcoat the reality of the situation.

In what ways might a little fear do us all some good (Phil. 2:12)?

Maybe some of us need a little more fear than others . . .

107

TUESDAY

June 24

On the Other Hand. . . .

As we saw in yesterday’s lesson, there is a dark side to the coming

of Jesus. But for the converted Christian, the scene is always bright;

for not only is the Coming One their King, He also is their Friend. This

joyous sense of anticipation is encouraged by Jesus Himself, whatever

the omen over the horizon. “ ‘When these things begin to take place,’ ”

He said, “ ‘stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption

is drawing near’ ”

(Luke 21:28, NIV). No heads-down, drop-shoulder

posture here. Jesus wants His followers to be hopeful, buoyant, radi-

ant, in anticipation of the climactic day, to set their gaze toward the

skies in wistful yearning for that glorious hour of His return.

Read

the following passages, and see how they strengthen this notion

of expectation and joy.

John 14:1–3

____________________________________________________________________

Acts 1:11

____________________________________________________________________

Phil. 3:20, 21

____________________________________________________________________

1 Thess. 4:13–18

____________________________________________________________________

Rev. 7:9, 10, 13–17

____________________________________________________________________

It is instructive to notice that when Jesus is speaking to the pompous

religious leaders (or when He has the rejecters of His grace in mind),

He emphasizes the majesty, the kingliness, the judgment aspects of

His coming. But when His followers come into focus, the emphasis

switches to ideas of comfort, assurance, joy. Thus in Matthew 24:31,

immediately after talking about the mourning of the nations at His

coming, the tone changes as He comes to focus on His people: The

angels gather them, He says, from every nation into His kingdom. And

in John 14:1–3, His promise to return is given to calm the “troubled”

hearts of His followers, to steady their fraying nerves, to anchor them

in hope.

If you believed, with all your heart, that Jesus was coming

within the month,

hat mor

al chang

es would you feel inclined

to make in your own life? After you think about your answer,

then ask yourself,

Why wait until then to make those changes?

After all, might it be a little har

der to mak

e those changes than

you think?

108

WEDNESDAY

June 25

When Will We See Jesus?: Part 1

Matthew 24 is a pivotal chapter on the second coming of Jesus,

recording Jesus’ own response to questions raised by His disciples,

questions we still have today about when the Advent will occur. Jesus

emphasized several points, among them the following:

1. We should not be alarmed. (In the Greek, the statement is

terse; we might even say, emphatic: “ ‘see to it that you are not

alarmed’ ”

(vs. 6, NIV)—whether by famine, by earthquake, or by

conflict between nations (vss. 6–8).

2. We will face conflict and hatred, even within the church (vss.

9–13).

3. We should not be naive and gullible as we wait for the Second

Coming (vss. 4, 5, 23–26). (Jesus lingered on this point!)

4. The gospel will be preached in the whole world before the end

(vs. 14).

5. The event will be a spectacular, visible, worldwide phenome-

non (vs. 27).

6. Certain cosmic signs will signal the Advent’s approach (vs.

29).

7. As the end arrives, angels will gather together the faithful

from all over the globe (vs. 31).

8. The day and hour of the Advent is known only to God (vs. 36).

9. Notwithstanding all warnings or predictions, the Second

Coming will be sudden and unexpected (vss. 42–44).

One important point worth emphasizing from the above list has to

do with the gospel. It says that the gospel will be preached everywhere

“ ‘as a testimony’ ” to all, “ ‘and then the end will come’ ”

(vs. 14,

NIV). This suggests that Christ’s followers play a role, however indi-

rectly, in creating a condition vital for the termination of human his-

tory. It thus calls for increased fervor on the part of each of us to

advance God’s kingdom where we are.

Leighton Ford tells about a prison chaplain trying to bring a con-

demned prisoner to Christ in a London jail. “Do you really believe

what you say, Chaplain? . . . If I believed your Gospel were true, I

would crawl across England on broken glass to tell men about it.”

—

The Christian Persuader (New York: Harper & Row, 1966), p. 29.

That is the kind of enthusiasm needed no

If the gospel must go everywhere before Christ returns, and if

we are called to preach that gospel, then we ourselves have a role

in working with Him to hasten the Second Advent, do we not?

Yes or no? What ar

e the challeng

es,

oppor

tunities,

or problems

this idea presents to us?

109

THURSDAY

June 26

When Will We See Jesus?: Part 2

Sunday’s lesson referred to the Millerites and how they eagerly

waited (albeit in vain) for the Advent on October 22, 1844. What they,

and we since, have discovered is that Jesus was not coming back the

next day, either, nor the next week, the next month, the next year, the

next decade, or the next century! And here we are today, some 164

years later, still in this world. How do we grapple with this problem in

our own minds?

One way is to focus on the veracity and certainty of the event. In

other words, regardless of the when of the event, we can come to grips

with the fact of it, not by logic, but by considering who made the

promise in the first place. It came from Jesus Himself, an authentic,

historical figure, whose probity and credibility have stood the test of

the centuries. We see this very Person addressing a group of follow-

ers, worried and apprehensive about His impending departure. Do not

be troubled, He says to them. Trust Me

(John 14:1). “ ‘If I go and pre-

pare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me’ ”

(vs. 3, NIV).

Review

the following passages. How do they help put the issue

before us in perspective? (Gen. 3:15, Isa. 40:8, Gal. 4:4; see also

Dan. 9:24–27).

____________________________________________________________________

The promise of the First Advent was given way back in the Garden

of Eden (Gen. 3:15); and the world was to wait thousands of years for

its fulfillment. But as God’s great cosmic clock struck the divinely

prescribed hour, mystic beings announced to startled shepherds on a

hillside in Bethlehem: “ ‘Today in the town of David a Savior has been

born to you’ ”

(Luke 2:11, NIV). The promise did not fail; for it was

anchored on the unshakable Word of the living God. And so it will be

with the second coming of Jesus.

What good was Christ’s first coming if we do not have the assur-

ance of the Second Coming? How should the certainty of the

First Coming, and what Christ did for us at it, make us

absolutely certain about the reality of the Second Coming,

regardless of whenever it happens?

110

FRIDAY

June 27

Further Study:

“Christ had ascended to heaven in the form of

humanity. The disciples had beheld the cloud receive Him. The same

Jesus who had walked and talked and prayed with them; who had bro-

ken bread with them; who had been with them in their boats on the

lake; and who had that very day toiled with them up the ascent of

Olivet,—the same Jesus had now gone to share His Father’s throne.

And the angels had assured them that the very One whom they had

seen go up into heaven, would come again even as He had ascended.

. . . Well might the disciples rejoice in the hope of their Lord’s

return.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 832.

Our concept of time has a lot to do with the level of anxiety we

experience in respect to the so-called delay of the Advent. In Western

society in particular, our expectation of temporal precision affects our

thinking about the event. To be told that an event will happen soon has

a certain currency with us, and we expect it to take place shortly, in

the Western sense. For the Eastern mind, on the other hand—the con-

text in which the biblical writers operated—the more important aspect

of an event was its certainty; time was secondary.

Discussion Questions:

● From about the mid-eighteenth century up through World War

I, many people in the West thought that through science, reason,

and technology, humanity could greatly improve itself, and that

evils such as war, disease, and other calamities could be eradi-

cated or at least greatly limited. Contrast that view with the view

of the world presented by Jesus more than nineteen hundred

years ago, in Matthew 24. Who was right? How should Matthew

24 be a factor in helping us have faith in the promises of Christ’s

second coming, especially when contrasted with these other views

of what the future would be like?

● There is a subtle danger in the fact that the idea of the Second

Coming has become part of our regular Adventist vocabulary.

This can prevent us from fully appreciating (and thus adequately

conveying to others) the extraordinary, mind-boggling nature of

this event. How can we protect ourselves from becoming hard-

ened to this extraordinary event, upon which all our hopes rest?

● Look at your local church, and then ask this question: Are we

helping hasten the Second Coming of Jesus, or are we part of the

reason for the dela

y? Discuss the implications of this question

and your answers to it in class.

tor

INSIDE

111

Seeking the Lost

by FERNANDO CUNHA DIAS

I had always wanted to be a missionary, so I studied for the ministry. But

God had a mission field far closer than I could have dreamed.

I was assigned to work with a pastor in his three churches in a region of

Brazil where people are closely bound to their traditional religion. It was

difficult to get people to even listen to God’s message here.

Then someone told me that a woman named Vera lived in a camp of

poor people not far from a town in the district. I set out to find this woman.

The camp was located in a beautiful valley four miles up a steep moun-

tainside. When I arrived, I found 70 families living in simple dwellings

made from bamboo and covered with black plastic tarps.

I stopped at several bamboo homes asking for Vera, but no one knew

her. Then I met a young man working outside his little hut. I asked the man

whether he knew anyone who was a Seventh-day Adventist.

“Are you a pastor?” the young man asked. When I told him I was, he

responded, “Praise God! I have prayed for a long time for a pastor.” Then

he introduced me to several people who had been Seventh-day Adventists,

but who had not attended church for a long time. I arranged to return and

visit each of them to study the Bible and minister to them.

The next time I visited the camp, I brought some church members with

me. We built a little chapel from bamboo and covered the roof with a tarp.

It was not very comfortable, but the people did not mind; they were eager

to hear the Word of God.

Interest in Bible studies continued to grow, and evangelistic meetings

were arranged. The district pastor led out, and several members of nearby

Adventist churches lent their support to the meetings. Attendance grew

until we had to build more pews to accommodate the people. Eventually

some 200 people attended the nightly meetings.

Ivanette, a teenage girl who attended the meetings, had a recurring

dream in which she returned home after the meetings to discover that she

had left her sandals at the church. When she returned to the chapel to get

her sandals, she heard a voice saying, “This is the true church, the church

you should follow.”

Following the meetings, 30 new believers were baptized, including

Ivanette and her father. The “bamboo church” was organized as a com-

pany. Ivanette’s father donated land on which to build a permanent church,

and the believers are working to build a more permanent church.

Our mission of

ferings mak

e evangelism such as this possible. Thank

you for giving faithfully.

FERNANDO CUNHA DIAS is a pastor in the Espírito Santo Conference of Brazil.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.

Web site: www.adventistmission.org

2008

112

Bible Study Guide for the Third Quarter

The Bible gives us many inspirational stories of God’s agents of

hope. In this quarter’s study, “Agents of Hope: God’s Great Mission-

aries,” we will focus on some of these outstanding missionaries; on

who they were and what they did in seeking to bring others to a saving

knowledge of the Lord of salvation.

This quarter is designed to lead us into a renewed commitment to

share God’s love with our neighbors, friends, and those in mission fields

around the world, bringing us to a new dimension in our Christian lives.

Lesson 1

—For Such a Time as This: The Apostle Paul

The Week at a Glance:

SUNDAY: Paul’s Background (Acts 22:3–5, 25–29)

MONDAY: Paul: His Conversion and Calling (ACTS 9:1–19)

TUESDAY: Paul: A Man of Like Passions ( Rom. 7:19–25, 1 Cor.

9:27)

WEDNESDAY: Life and Salvation through Christ (1 Cor. 2:2; Gal.

6:14)

THURSDAY: Themes of Hope (Rom. 5:15, 6:23, Eph. 2:8)

Memory Text—

Romans 15:17, NIV

Sabbath Gem:

The apostle Paul had a powerful impact on his world

and radically helped to spread the gospel well beyond Israel. What a

model are both his life and ministry to us in our mission to the world.

Lesson 2

—“All Things to All Men”: Paul Preaches to the World

The Week at a Glance:

SUNDAY: Paul Encouraged for Mission (Acts 9:24-27)

MONDAY: All Things to All People (Acts 9:19–22, 13:14–16)

TUESDAY: A Witness to the Philosophers (Acts 17:18–34)

WEDNESDAY: The Message on Mars’ Hill (Acts 17:28)

THURSDAY: Paul’s Method of Church Planting (1 Thess. 1:7, 8, NIV)

Memory Text—

1 Corinthians 9:22, NKJV

Sabbath Gem:

Paul gives us an excellent example of how we need

to learn to adapt the way we present our message, depending on the

context and culture in which we are giving witness to the gospel.

Lessons for the V

isually Impaired

The regular Adult Sab

bath School

Bible Study Guide is available free each month in braille and on audiocassette to sight-

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